Brighton Builds Biggest Blade

The longest wind turbine blade ever made in the United States has been made at Vestas Wind Systems’ blades factory in Brighton, Denver, United States. The first few prototypes, each just a few feet short of 200 feet, are leaving the factory, bound for Houston. There they will be loaded onto ships to take them to Vestas Headquarters in Denmark, or, according to one story,  to their testing facility on the Isle of Wight off of the South Coast of England, where they’ll be subjected to rigorous testing and assembled as part of Vestas’ new V117-3.3MW model turbine.

 

When I used the word rigorous, I was serious. The new blade will be put through its paces for the best part of a year- especially important in view of the recent failures of the Siemens blades in the States. Once approved, the 189 foot long blades will be mass-produced in Brighton and then shipped to customers around the world.

Vestas senior Vice President Bjarne Sandager Nielsen said during a media briefing in Brighton:

“The birth of a new blade is always an important event. It’s the first of its kind and it will be built here in Brighton. We think it’s a good blade for the market.”

The Brighton factory will be the company’s only factory in the world capable of making the V117 blades.

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The V117-3.3 megawatt wind turbine is built for low and medium wind speeds and is capable of generating electricity when the breeze is moving at only 6.5 miles per hour. The longer blades on the V117— about 15 feet longer than the company’s V112-3.3 megawatt model — will generate 7 percent more electricity a year compared to the V112 model, Nielsen said.

The U.S. wind-turbine industry saw a very busy 2011 and 2012 but this year has seen a marked slowdown. The rush was probably related to the scheduled expiration of the federal wind Production Tax Credit, worth about $22 for every megawatt of energy produced by a wind farm, at the end of 2012. However, the credit was extended for two years on Jan. 1. Vestas has announced North American factory orders for wind farms in Canada and Mexico so far this year, but none in the United States.

Vestas, which employs about 17,000 people worldwide, has said it will shrink to 16,000 people worldwide by the end of 2013. The company has four plants in Colorado, a blades factory in Windsor, a towers plant in Pueblo and two plants in Brighton, one for blades and the other for the wind turbine housings;  nacelles.

Vestas’ Brighton blades factory provides turbine blades for wind farms in Europe, Canada, Mexico and South America, Nielsen said.

The Brighton blades plant can make blades for the V112, which are 180 feet Long, as well as the V117. The company’s Windsor factory makes blades for the V90, which are 144 feet long and the V100, which has blades 161 feet long.

The production of the first blade for the V117-3.3 MW in Colorado demonstrates Vestas’ focus of being faster to the market in developing new products,” said Chief Manufacturing Officer Jean-Marc Lechêne.

In just five months Vestas has been able to modify the production set up where we can introduce a new blade variant on a flexible production line that can be transformed between blade types within a single day.
The development of the new blade underlines Vestas’ commitment to produce wind turbines which meet customer demands by providing advancements in existing technology, while at the same time reducing the overall level of capital investment.
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Vestas has operated in the field of wind power for over three decades. It has  55 GW of installed capacity and installations in over 70 countries and is considered to be the world’s leading and most global manufacturer of wind power solutions.

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