The Danish group of companies Vestas plans to build the world's tallest offshore wind turbines. The company said on Wednesday that its new wind turbines will be 260 meters high, nearly equal to the tallest skyscraper in the City of London or Rockefeller Center in New York.
According to Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen, the growing scale of new offshore installations will help reduce the cost of generating electricity.
Larger wind turbines can produce more power per tower, which reduces the overall construction cost. The blades of the new turbine will be 115 meters long, and the area covered by one rotation of the blades is equivalent to about six football fields.
The number of offshore wind farms is expected to skyrocket in the next few years, especially in the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to make the country the "Saudi Arabia of the Wind."
At the same time, experts warn that very high turbine prices risk making offshore wind power less competitive than competing energy technologies.
There is also some speculation that record prices offered in the UK are also likely to drive up electricity bills as the winners will have to recover their costs in some way or projects will be unprofitable.
Vestas, which makes turbines and sells them to wind power developers, reported slightly lower profits in 2020 than the previous year, and the company's share price fell 2% in early trading on Wednesday. While Vestas' revenues grew 22 percent last year, earnings before interest and taxes fell 25 percent, in part due to increased production costs associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
Andersen also admitted that Vestas was late with the production of giant turbines. “In 2019-2020, we did not have the right technological roadmap, we were not competitive compared to the alternatives GE and Siemens at that time. ... ... that is why today we are taking another step in the development of technology. ”
