PNE WIND AG recently signed an exclusive agreement with Vestas to create the first offshore wind power plant consisting of the new mega turbines in the North Sea - the offshore project Gode Wind lll. Mr. Thorsten Fastenau, Division Manager, born and bred in the engineering industry explains why PNE has chosen to use the new mega turbines for Gode Wind lll project.
Why did you make an exclusive agreement before seeing the final specifications of the new mega turbine?
“It is a good idea to install the first offshore mega turbine in the project, because the Gode Wind lll area allows having a bigger rotor diameter and only allows room for 15 turbines. But more importantly, we want to show the world the capacity of the new mega turbine in the rough waves of the North Sea. Here, Gode Wind lll will be a reference site and together with Vestas we will show the capacity of the new turbine.” He says.
Nevertheless, with a new turbine which has not been erected some might feel that there is a risk for the customer - have you considered this?
“Yes, with new turbines there is always a risk, but with Vestas it is different. We trust Vestas with our business, because Vestas handles and manages risks, if they occur. In the early offshore days, there were challenges and we saw how the market and developers continued to work with Vestas, because Vestas took and takes responsibility of their turbines. We experience the same responsibility today. ” Mr. Fastenau says before pausing.
What do you expect from the new mega turbine and how will it meet your needs?
“I expect to get a turbine which optimizes the economical aspect. By this I mean a lower cost per installed megawatt capacity. The mega turbines are expected to implement Vestas’ know how and pedigree, and thus, offer a low construction cost, a low operations and maintenance cost and also I expect Vestas to optimize the project. In effect, this will mean a lower CAPEX cost for PNE WIND, and consequently, it allows us to produce cheaper energy for the market.”
As the market is maturing, there are several suppliers coming into the onshore and offshore wind market - An industry growth, which increases competition and allows customers to pick and choose, as they strive to push down the Cost of Energy by increasing reliability as downtime is highly expensive for developers and utilities. Especially within the offshore industry, there is a strong momentum to look at these two factors when investing.
There are other competitors in the market with ambitions to launch bigger turbines – why did you choose Vestas?
“This is an important question and we have of course also considered it thoroughly. First of all we considered that we have worked together with Vestas for a long time trustfully and reliably for several years. Based on this experience we are very Vestas minded, but there are of course also other reasons.
Vestas is a powerful company in two concrete ways. The first being Vestas’ ability to invest in strong and good test facilities and R&D programmes, which will benefit us as a customer since our turbines will be more reliable. The latter being Vestas’ extensive track record within the offshore and onshore market, which shows they manage generators of all sizes. For PNE, this creates a good comfort situation - We experience that people in Vestas think like PNE WIND. Mr. Fastenau ends this interview from his office in Germany.
