Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Australia, China, Brazil, Poland and the United States, and employs more than 25,000 people globally. , it is the largest wind turbine company in the world.

Operations

Vestas has installed over 66,000 wind turbines for a capacity of 100 GW in over 80 countries on five continents. the company has built production facilities in more than 12 countries, among them China, Spain and the United States.Wind as a modern energy source: the Vestas view
(PDF). Vestas employs 29,000 people.

History

Vestas traces its roots to 1898 when Hans Smith Hansen bought a blacksmith shop in , West

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, that operated as a family business. After the second world war Vestas was founded in 1945 by his son Peder Hansen as "Vestjysk Stålteknik A/S" (West-Jutlandish steel technology). The company initially manufactured household appliances, moving its focus to agricultural equipment in 1950,

intercooler An intercooler is a heat exchanger used to cool a gas after compression. Often found in turbocharged engines, intercoolers are also used in air compressors, air conditioners, refrigeration and gas turbines. Internal combustion engines Mo ...

s in 1956, and hydraulic

cranes Crane or cranes may refer to: Common meanings * Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird * Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting ** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads People and fictional characters * Crane (surname), ...

in 1968. It entered the wind turbine industry in 1979 and produced wind turbines exclusively from 1989. In 1997, the company placed in production the NTK 1500/60. The product was designed by

Timothy Jacob Jensen Timothy Jacob Jensen (born 27 April 1962) is a Danish industrial designer. He was best known as CEO and Chief Designer of Jacob Jensen Design (Scandinavia’s oldest design studio) from 1990 to 2018. Jensen was also the founder of the Scandinavia ...

and received the German IF Award and the Red Dot Award. The company's North American headquarters was relocated in 2002 from

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

In 2003, the company merged with the Danish wind turbine manufacturer NEG Micon to create the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, under the banner of Vestas Wind Systems. After a sales slump and an operational loss in 2005, Vestas recovered in 2006 with a 28% market share and increased production although market share slid to between 12.5%Reddall, Braden
Vestas will not chase market share at any price

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

BTM Consult BTM Consult is an independent consultancy company specializing in services pertaining to renewable energy commercialization. The company was founded 1989 by Per Krogsgaard and Birger Madsen. The Staff at BTM Consult have been working with wind powe ...

, 1 September 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010. and 14%.Acher, John
Vestas kept No. 1 spot in wind market -consultant

/MAKE, 17 March 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010. Vestas began a

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

program in 2007, among the first in Denmark. On 1 December 2008 Vestas announced plans to expand its North American headquarters in Portland through construction of a new building, but this plan was mothballed in 2009 due to the economic

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, and in August 2010 the company announced a revised plan, scaled back in size, to expand its Portland headquarters by renovating an existing-but-vacant building. At that time, Vestas employed about 400 in Portland and committed to add at least 100 more employees there within five years; the new building will have space for up to 600 workers. The company moved its Portland offices to the new headquarters building, a renovated historic building, in May 2012. In February 2009, the company announced the production of two new turbine types, the 3-megawatt V112 and 1.8-megawatt V100. The new models were to be available in 2010. In July 2009, Vestas announced its manufacturing operations on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

in England would close due to a lack of UK demand, affecting 525 jobs there and 100 in Southampton. Approximately 25 workers at the wind turbine factory on the island occupied the administration offices in protest on 20 July 2009, demanding nationalisation to save their jobs. In August 2009 Vestas hired more than 5,000 extra workers for its new factories in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. The company said it was "expanding heavily in China and the US because these markets were growing the fastest, in contrast to the sluggish pace of wind farm development in the UK". As part of this gradual shift in production away from Europe and towards China and the US, in October 2010, the company announced it was closing five factories in Denmark and Sweden, with the loss of 3,000 jobs.Reuters
Reuters. In November 2010, Vestas shut down the 70-person staff advisory department 'Vestas Excellence', responsible for securing competitiveness, handling suppliers,

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

and

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

.Stage, Mie
Vestas fires 70 experts
(in Danish) Ing.dk, 17 November 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2010. In January 2012, the company suggested firing 1,600 out of its 3,000 U.S. workers if the U.S. did not renew the 2.2 cents-per-kilowatt-hour

Production Tax Credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

, which was extended in 2013. On 13 August 2012, an estimated 90 workers were laid off from the Pueblo facility. Six long colored lines, leading to an exit, had been placed on the floor. Those laid off were given one of six different colored papers, and then instructed to follow the colored line that matched the colored paper they had been given. In 2013, the tower factory in Pueblo began ramping up to full utilization as orders rebounded from the 2012 slump. Other facilities in Colorado include a further 750 persons employed at a blade manufacturing facility in

Windsor, Colorado Windsor is a home rule municipality in Larimer and Weld counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town was 32,716. Windsor is located in the Northern Colorado region. History In 1873, a settl ...

. Vestas has a

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

manufacturing facility in Brighton, Colorado and also operates a tower facility in

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

. Vestas said it decided to build its North American production facilities in Colorado because of the state’s central location, extensive transportation infrastructure and rail system, existing manufacturing base, and skilled workforce. In May 2013, Marika Fredriksson became the company's new Executive Vice President and

Chief Financial Officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

after her predecessor Dag Andresen resigned for personal reasons. Her strategy is to lead Vestas back to higher earnings after the important losses faced by the company: from €166 million losses in 2011 and increasing to €963 million in 2012. MHI Vestas plant, Isle of Wight, UK

In September 2013, Vestas made a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

for offshore wind turbines with

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

creating MHI-Vestas, including the 7-9 MW

Vestas V164 The Vestas V164 is a three-bladed offshore wind turbine, produced by Vestas, with a nameplate capacity of up to 10 megawatts, a world record. Vestas revealed the V164's design in 2011 with the first prototype unit operated at Østerild in n ...

, the most powerful turbine on Earth. In October 2013 Vestas sold its four casting and two machining factories to VTC Partners GmbH. In May 2014, Vestas announced it would be adding hundreds of jobs to its Colorado Windsor and Brighton facilities and following a rough 2012 it called 2013 one of Vestas’s "best years ever". Vestas also added employees in Pueblo and expected the tower facility to eventually top 500. Vestas stated that it expected to have 2800 employees in Colorado by the end of 2014. , Vestas has a US nacelle production capacity of 2.6 GW. In March 2015, Vestas announced it would be upping jobs by 400 at its blade manufacturing facility in Windsor and stated "We had a very successful 2014". In 2015 almost half of all Vestas turbines were going to the American market (nearly 3 GW for US out of 7.5 GW worldwide). Vestas intends to build a blade factory in India in 2016. In 2014 and 2015, 26 dishonest employees were detected with the company's whistleblower program (the first in Denmark), and disciplined. In February 2016, Vestas got its largest order of 1,000 MW (278 x 3.6 MW) for the

Fosen Fosen is a traditional district in Trøndelag, consisting of the municipalities Osen, Roan Åfjord, Ørland, Indre Fosen, Orkland, Heim, Hitra and Frøya. The district is dominated by forested valleys, lakes, coastal cliffs but also shallow a ...

project near

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

in Norway. It costs DKK 11 billion, and should deliver 3.4 TWh per year. In 1Q 2016, the average wind turbine price was 0.83 million Euro per MW, compared to 0.91 a year before. In 2016, Vestas was voted number 7 on the Clean200 list. In 2019, MHI-Vestas received a supply and operations vessel for the Deutsche Bucht Offshore Wind Project, with a further two ships scheduled for other projects.

Research and development

Vestas spent €92 million ($128 million), or 1.4% of revenue, on

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

in 2009. It has filed 787 wind turbine patents (227 in 2010) according to United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO), while

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

has 666 and Siemens Wind Power has 242.Rosen, Ellen
Intellectual Property
'' Bloomberg'', 11 October 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010. In October 2009, Vestas and QinetiQ claimed a successful test of a

stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology **Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Stea ...

wind turbine blade mitigating

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

reflection problems for aviation.QinetiQ and Vestas test 'stealth technology' for wind turbines
''Renewable Energy Focus'', 26 October 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2010.

Cnet ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

, 27 January 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2010.Fairly, Peter
Stealth-Mode Wind Turbines
''

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

'', 2 November 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2010.Appleton, Steve
Stealth blades – a progress report
'' QinetiQ''. Retrieved 22 September 2010. In December 2010 Vestas were developing the V164 7 MW offshore turbine, with a 164 m rotor diameter. Prototypes of it were manufactured at

Lindø Odense Steel Shipyard ( da, Odense Staalskibsværft) was a Danish shipyard company located in Odense. It was best known for building container ships for its parent group, A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, including the Mærsk E class in 2006 whic ...

(the former

Maersk (), also known simply as Maersk (), is a Danish shipping company, active in ocean and inland freight transportation and associated services, such as supply chain management and port operation. Maersk was the largest container shipping line a ...

shipyard) due to size, crane and port access requirements.

Series production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

of nacelles for the 32 turbines (256 MW) extension of the 90 MW

Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm The Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm is a 348 MW offshore wind farm located on the Burbo Flats in Liverpool Bay on the west coast of the UK in the Irish Sea. It consists of an original 90 MW wind farm commissioned in 2007 and a 258 MW extension comp ...

occurs at Lindø, while blades are made at Vestas' Isle of Wight facilitiesBredsdorff, Magnus.
Nu indleder Vestas serieproduktion af verdens største havmølle
'' Ingeniøren'', 22 December 2014. Retrieved: 24 December 2014. in England.Dyrskjøt, Mette
Vestas builds turbines at Lindø
''

Børsen Børsen (Danish for "the Exchange"), also known as Børsbygningen ("The (Stock) Exchange building" in English), is a 17th-century stock exchange in the center of Copenhagen. The historic building is situated next to Christiansborg Palace, the seat ...

'', 24 November 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011.

DONG Energy Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Persons *Queen Dong (1623–1681), princes ...

tested a prototype in the sea off

Frederikshavn Frederikshavn () is a Danish town in Frederikshavn municipality, Region Nordjylland, on the northeast coast of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. Its name translates to "Frederik's harbor". It was originally named Fladstrand. The town h ...

in 2013, at a cost of DKK 240 million.Nymark, Jen
Seaturbines competitive in 15 years
''

'', 15 November 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011.Vestas/DONG tests 7 MW turbine
''fushi'', 27 October 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011. A V164 was installed for testing in

Østerild Wind Turbine Test Field Østerild Wind Turbine Test Field (alternatively Risø) is a facility managed by the DTU Risø Campus of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) for testing of offshore wind turbines with a pinnacle height up to near Thisted-Østerild, Denmark. ...

in 2014, later uprated to more power. In June 2011, the Vestas

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

Firestorm was number 53 on the

TOP500 The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computing, distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The first of these ...

-list of the world's most powerful computers calculating worldwide weather in a 3x3 km grid, and it delivers daily weather reports to the newspaper Ekstra Bladet and similar purposes. In 2012, Vestas donated the older 1344- core supercomputer from 2008 to Aalborg University. In October 2011, Vestas participated in the deployment of a floating wind turbine offshore of Portugal. Vestas supplied a v80 2.0 MW offshore turbine to Windplus, S.A. (a joint-venture company including

Energias de Portugal EDP - Energias de Portugal (formerly Electricidade de Portugal) is a Portuguese electric utilities company, headquartered in Lisbon. It was founded in 1976 through the merger of 14 nationalised electricity companies. History EDP was founded as '' ...

, Repsol, Principle Power, A. Silva Matos, Inovcapital and Portugal Ventures).Semi-submersible wind turbine is floating into the future
"ReCharge" 4 July 2012 The system, known as the WindFloat, consists of a semi-submersible type floating foundation, a conventional catenary mooring, and the wind turbine. The successful deployment represents the first offshore multi-megawatt wind turbine to be installed without the use of any heavy-lift or specialized offshore construction equipment. In 2012, Vestas scaled back and closed some of its R&D offices in Houston, Marlborough, Louisville, China, Singapore and Denmark. In August 2013, Vestas started operating its 20 MW test bench for nacelles in Aarhus. On 5 September 2013, Chris Spruce, Vestas Senior Product Engineer, served as member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for the kite-energy-systems project ERC HIGHWIND, a project at KU Leuven dedicated to the research and development of tethered airfoils dedicated to generating energy by airborne wind energy (AWE). In April 2016, Vestas installed a 900 kW

quadrotor A quadcopter or quadrotor is a type of helicopter with four rotors. Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity until the arrival of the modern UAV or drone. T ...

test wind turbine at Risø, made from 4 recycled 225 kW V29 turbines. The first three months of testing confirmed theoretical models. Vestas has no immediate plans of commercializing the prototype. Test results were published in 2019, indicating lower costs. As of 2022, Vestas produces the second highest offshore wind turbine in the world, with a blade of 115 meters and an energy power of 15 MW. In September 2022, Vestas unveiled the tallest onshore tower for a wind farm. The 199-meter structure will allow to reach the zone of stronger and more stable winds. It is supposed to install a Vestas V172 generator with a rotor diameter of 172 meters and a power of 7.2 MW. It is planned to place the towers in Germany and Austria. Vestas operates a blade recycling facility in USA. File:Vestas V126-3.45 MW guyed tower at Østerild, 2017.jpg, Vestas V126-3.45 MW

guyed tower A guyed mast or guyed tower is a tall thin vertical structure that depends on guy lines (diagonal tensioned cables attached to the ground) for stability. The mast itself has the compressive strength to support its own weight, but does not ha ...

at Østerild File:Agucadoura WindFloat Prototype.jpg, WindFloat, operating at rated capacity (2 MW), approximately offshore of Agucadoura, Portugal File:Windräder - Bischberg 007.jpg, Vestas V112-3.0 MW in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, Germany

References

External links

*
Yearly accumulated orders, 2010-2014
{{Authority control Manufacturing companies of Denmark Multinational companies headquartered in Denmark Companies listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen Wind power in Denmark Wind turbine manufacturers Companies based in Aarhus Danish brands Danish companies established in 1945 Manufacturing companies established in 1945

Operations

History

Research and development

See also

References

External links