http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/vestas-launches-next-generation-offshore-turbine.html

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has launched its next-generation offshore turbine, the V164-7MW, a specially designed turbine to withstand the roughest North Sea conditions and ensure the lowest possible cost of energy.

Reducing the cost of energy in offshore wind can be achieved through increasing the size and subsequent energy capture of the turbine, as seen in Vestas’s latest turbine.
Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel said, ‘Seeing the positive indications from governments worldwide and especially from the UK to increase the utilisation of wind energy is indeed very promising. We look forward to this new turbine doing its part in making these political targets a reality.’
Anders Søe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore, said the company expects the majority of future offshore wind development to happen in northern Europe, where the conditions at sea are particularly rough.
He said, ‘Based on our broad true offshore experience and our many years as pioneers within the offshore wind industry, we have specifically designed the V164-7.0 MW to provide the highest energy capture and the highest reliability in this rough and challenging environment. This makes our new turbine an obvious and ideal choice for instance for many UK Round 3 projects.’
Vestas, which controls 43 per cent of the offshore wind industry, has invited a number of experienced offshore customers to provide input during the development process.
The wind turbine manufacturer said that it ran two separate parallel research and development tracks; one focusing on direct drive and one on a geared solution.
‘It soon became clear that if we wanted to meet the customers’ expectations about lowest possible cost of energy and high business case certainty we needed a perfect combination of innovation and proven technology and so the choice could only be to go for a medium-speed drive-train solution,’ said Finn Strøm Madsen, president of Vestas technology R&D.
‘Offshore wind customers do not want new and untested solutions. They want reliability and business case certainty – and that is what the V164-7.0 MW gives them.’
Construction of the first V164-7.0MW prototypes is expected in the fourth quarter of 2012 and serial production is expected in the first quarter of 2015, provided a firm order backlog in place to justify the needed investment.