Vestas engineers consider direct drive and geared highspeed drivetrains and settled on a medium-speed drive train.
Vestas Wind Systems A/S has taken the wraps off its next generation offshore turbine, the V164-7.0 MW with a rotor diameter of 164m. The company says North Sea conditions influenced the designs of the turbine.
President of Vestas Offshore Anders Søe-Jensen says the offshore wind market is set to significantly expand over the coming years, more so in some parts of the world than in others. “We expect the major part of offshore wind development to happen in the Northern Europe where conditions at sea are particularly rough. The V164 will provide the highest energy capture and reliability in this rough and challenging environment. This makes our new turbine a good choice for many UK Round-3 projects.”
Vestas says development ran on two separate parallel R&D tracks. One focused on direct drive and one on a geared designs. Finn Strøm Madsen, president of Vestas Technology R&D says the final decision went to a medium-speed drive train.
To ensure alignment between customer needs and features of this turbine, several experienced offshore customers were invited to provide input during development, resulting in a match between turbine specifics and customer business cases.
Construction of the first V164 prototype is expected in Q4 2012. Production is set for Q1 2015 provided a firm order backlog is in place to justify the substantial investment needed. The company says it has installed 580 offshore turbines, about 43% of all offshore turbines in the world.
WPE
Filed Under: Construction, Offshore wind, Towers
