Vestas 15 MW Prototype Now at Full Throttle

April 3, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

Last week, three months after it was installed at the National Test Center for large wind turbines in Østerild, Denmark, Vestas’s V236-15.0 MW prototype wind turbine reached its nominal power rating of 15 MW.

The company’s new flagship wind turbine produced its first electricity shortly after being installed in December 2022 and has started operating at its rated output following a production ramp-up period according to the testing and verification campaign, according to the OEM.

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The blade moulds for the V236-15.0 MW prototype have been developed at Vestas’ blade factory in Lem and the 115.5-metre-long prototype blades have been manufactured at the company’s offshore blade factory in Nakskov. The prototype nacelle has been developed and assembled at the offshore nacelle factory in Lindø port of Odense.

The test programme for the generator, converter and grid system integration has also started at the LORC test facility in Denmark.

At the wind turbine test field in Denmark, the V236-15.0 MW prototype will undergo an extensive test and verification programme before full-type certification and serial production begin, with the latter expected from the third quarter of 2023.

The new model has already been pre-selected or selected for several projects worldwide.

In 2021, EnBW pre-selected Vestas’s 15 MW offshore turbine for the 900 MW He Dreiht project in the German North Sea and Equinor and BP named the company their preferred turbine supplier for the 2.1 GW Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 projects in New York.

The V236-15.0 MW model will also spin on the Atlantic Shores project off New Jersey, the Inch Cape wind farm offshore Scotland, and the Baltic Power wind farm offshore Poland.

The company was also named a preferred turbine supplier for the 1.3 GW MunmuBaram floating wind project in South Korea, developed by a joint venture between Shell and Hexicon, and another, 495 MW floating wind farm in the country for a yet unnamed client.