Isra-Mart srl:Vestas to unveil 6MW offshore turbine next month

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Vestas will unveil the long-awaited design of its 6MW offshore wind turbine next month, as it seeks to further reduce the long-term cost of wind energy.

Company chief executive Ditlev Engel told reporters yesterday that he will unveil specifics about the company's 6MW turbine at an event on 30 March in London, along with further details of how the company plans to boost its position in the fast-expanding offshore wind market.

"We are going to go through the details of Vestas' focus on this machine in particular, and some of the offshore product-related areas and the initiatives I'm hoping Vestas [will carry out] to support our order intake for the years to come," he said.

However, he refused to disclose any further details of the machine, including whether or not the 6MW turbine will use emerging direct drive technology. Vestas first announced its 6MW ambitions in 2009 but has been tight-lipped about the project since then.

Some manufacturers believe direct drive technology will be critical to reducing the cost of wind energy, as it replaces the gearbox, which has in the past been regarded as the most costly component to maintain or replace. The need to reduce maintenance costs and wind turbine downtime will become increasingly important for developers building wind farms in inhsopitable offshore conditions – hence growing interest in direct drive technology.

However, Vestas has to date focused more on gearbox turbines and it remains to be seen which technology the new turbine will use. "We're not religious about it," a Vestas spokesman told BusinessGreen, adding that while direct drive machines may reduce the need for gearbox maintenance, they could create a range of other problems, not least an increased reliance on rare earth materials.

The announcement of the new offshore turbine could herald a potential shift in focus for Vestas, which has in the past primarily targeted the onshore market.

"In my mind Vestas Offshore is a very important add-on to broadening this business," Engel told BusinessGreen on the sidelines of yesterday's earnings announcement. "But it's true, some of the numbers people have been bouncing around in offshore were simply too much rhetoric and too little reality. And that is one of the reasons why we have always said we are in offshore but we just need to make sure that the calibration is right."

He downplayed any speculation the US is set for a major growth in the offshore market, despite the fact the Obama administration this week launched a new offshore wind strategy that will aim to deliver 10GW of new offshore wind farms by 2020.

"Anybody who says they want to build more wind capacity is always positive news, specifically in the United States where they have some of the best onshore resources in the world," he said. "So I still believe that there might be offshore in the United States but the majority of the wind there is going to be onshore."