New most powerful wind turbine prototype

The nacelle is now on its way to be installed at the Danish national test centre at Østerild where it will be vigorously tested to ensure reliability and performance.

“The complete nacelle and all of its components have now successfully passed the extensive testing regime according to the plan to date. This means we can now take another step closer to bringing the V164-8.0 MW to our customers,” said Vestas chief technology officer, Anders Vedel.

Vestas is gearing itself up for Round 3 development and to head up the race to produce bigger and more powerful offshore wind turbines.

One V164-8.0 MW unit will able to supply electricity for 7,500 average European households. Vestas says that the idea is to reduce operational and maintenance costs by enabling customers to run fewer, larger turbines with fewer service visits.

Although Vestas has built the world’s most powerful prototype, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) currently holds the record for the most powerful offshore wind turbine prototype in operation.

Its 7MW turbine, built at Fife Energy Park in Scotland, has been installed 50m offshore in the Firth of Forth.

But Siemens can lay claim to the world’s largest offshore windfarm. London Array in the United Kingdom has 175 turbines each with a capacity of 3.6MW and a total capacity of 630MW.