Vestas Introduces the V138-3.0 MW

Following the launch of the EnVentus platform in January, including the V162-5.6 MW and V150-5.6 MW turbines, Vestas today introduced the V138-3.0 MW turbine at AWEA WINDPOWER in Houston, Texas. Based on the scalable EnVentus platform architecture, the V138-3.0 MW’s 138m rotor provides a large rotor-size-to-generator-rating ratio, strengthening Vestas’ portfolio of turbines through superior park level energy production, higher certainty in performance, and reduced levelised cost of energy.

The V138-3.0 MW is globally applicable but purposely designed to maximise performance under market specific constraint conditions. By combining the V138-3.0 MW turbine’s 138m rotor with an 83m tower, the new turbine offers the industry’s largest swept area under 152.4m (500ft), a relevant height constraint in the United States. At the same time, the turbine’s leading sound power levels makes it highly suitable for low wind sites in sound sensitive markets such as France.

Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service division in the United States and Canada says: “The V138-3.0 MW underlines Vestas ability to continuously innovate and lead the industry in developing customisable and sustainable energy solutions that meet our customers’ needs. This turbine is a perfect match for the North American market where higher certainty in Annual Energy Production at park level will become increasingly important for our customers to secure project financing and ensure profitability in a post-PTC market”.

As wind energy continues to expand globally and increase its share of the energy mix, the energy market is transforming. EnVentus is designed to meet the challenges our customers are facing in this environment, including changing energy policy and grid requirements. Through increased standardisation of components while ensuring turbine optimisation, the EnVentus variants thus help efficiently ensure our customers’ competitiveness in a wide range of market conditions, including markets driven by auction and forward-selling.

Anders Vedel, Vestas Chief Technology Officer, says “With the introduction of the V138-3.0 MW, we take another step forward in versatility and scalability of functional systems, demonstrating modular product development’s huge potential and how it supports our vision to become the global leader in sustainable energy solutions. I’m proud that, by utilising many of the same components as the first two turbines, we can introduce the V138-3.0 MW to meet customer requirements while lowering the levelised cost of energy and optimising the value chain”.

With the introduction of the V138-3.0 MW, EnVentus now covers an unprecedented wide spectrum of turbine generator ratings and rotor sizes, underlining the scalability of EnVentus’ platform architecture. Prototype installation is expected by the second half of 2020, while serial production is scheduled for the first half of 2021.