Vestas ships first 14 V112-3.0 MW wind turbines to Australia

The 420MW Macarthur Wind Farm is Vestas’ first major order for the new V112-3.0MW wind turbine.

According to a release, the first 14 of Vestas’ large scale produced V112-3.0 MW wind turbines have been loaded on to a ship, bound for the southern hemisphere’s largest wind power plant in south eastern Australia.

The 420MW Macarthur Wind Farm is Vestas’ first major order for the new V112-3.0MW wind turbine and will feature 140 of Vestas’ new turbines.

Sean Sutton, President of Vestas Asia Pacific, says the first shipment to of the V112-3.0 MW turbines to Macarthur is a significant milestone for Vestas and for wind power in Australia.

“The commencement of V112-3.0 MW turbine shipment to the Macarthur wind farm is very exciting for Vestas,” he says. “Many people have been working hard to make this happen across our value chain of internal and external suppliers.”

“Vestas is extremely proud to be a part of developing the 420MW Macarthur wind farm, making it the largest in Australia and in the southern hemisphere,” finished Sean Sutton.

Southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm
The journey of the nacelles, blades and hubs from the factories in northern Europe will take approximately 5-6 weeks. The construction of the towers at the Macarthur project is expected to commence in late October and the main construction to commence in late November.

The Macarthur project is being jointly developed by AGL Energy Limited and Meridian.

AGL is a publicly listed electricity generator and retailer operating in the Australian market, while Meridian is the largest state-owned renewable energy generator and retailer in New Zealand and a renewable energy developer in Australia. Both AGL and Meridian are Vestas global key account customers and have existing wind power plants with Vestas at the Wattle Point (AGL), and Te Apiti and White Hill Wind Farms (Meridian).

Award winning technology
The V112-3.0 MW is based upon well proven technology and won the 2010 Zayed Future Energy prize and the Gold award for the Most Innovative Power Technology of the Year in the 2010 Asian Power Awards. The large swept area of the blades of the V112-3.0 MW increase the efficiency of the turbine, capturing maximum energy from the wind.

The V112-3.0 MW is designed for low to medium wind speed sites and delivers higher productivity and lower cost of energy, as well as reliability which has been assured through intense testing and verification of the components as well on as seven prototype V112-3.0 MW turbines.