Poland will see 15 of Nordex’s N100/2500 turbines at the Orla development. The first nine of these machines will be installed within weeks, with commissioning due as early as December this year. Orla is being developed by Nordex’s development arm, making it the first project realized by Nordex in Poland. The wind farm is owned by C&C Wind, an international private-equity investment vehicle for the project. Orla is a village in North-East Poland, close to the border and 29 miles south of the regional capital Bialystok (pictured below).
The remaining six turbines are expected to be up and running by the middle of 2015. Due to the harsh winter conditions at the site in eastern Poland, the turbines have been specially adapted to deal with extremely cold weather. Project finance has largely been provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Poland has an installed capacity of 3.4GW, with nearly 900MW added last year. However, it has not been so good this year. Regulatory uncertainty has put a damper on development and thus significantly less capacity is expected to be installed in 2014. The Nordex N100/2500 turbine is pictured here:
Meanwhile, Vestas V164-8.0MW prototype has just produced its first kilowatt/hour of electricity. It is now officially the world’s most powerful operating turbine:
Vestas’ Chief Technology Officer Anders Vedel said:
“We have now completed the production, testing and installation of the V164-8.0 MW as planned, thanks to the team’s intense effort during a time when Vestas has reduced its investments and lowered fixed costs. We now look forward to evaluating the turbine’s performance on-site.”
The turbine is installed at the Danish National Test Centre for Large Wind Turbines in Østerild and will be closely monitored through a series of tests in the coming months to further validate reliability and energy output. The turbine’s installation is a key step towards boosting business case certainty for customers investing in offshore wind. The V164-8.0 MW will be the flagship product for the offshore joint venture between Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Jens Tommerup, President of Vestas Offshore said:
“The V164-8.0 MW delivers industry-leading power output, based on Vestas’ proven technology solutions. Combined with the experience and capabilities of both Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, this puts us in a strong position in the growing offshore market.”
With a 140-meter tower, the turbine at Østerild has a tip height of 220 meters. The swept area of more than 21,000 m2, equal to three soccer pitches, increases the amount of energy captured, while reducing operational and maintenance costs by enabling customers to run fewer, larger turbines. This should mean fewer maintenance visits and repairs, which are always more expensive offshore than onshore.
It is anticipated that full production of non-prototype V164-8.0s can begin next year.
