Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

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 29,000 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).

History

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

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

, 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 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 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 language, 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 Rivers ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

In 2003, the company merged with the Danish wind turbine manufacturer

NEG Micon NEG Micon was a Danish wind turbine manufacturer. It was formed in 1997 as a result of a merger between Nordtank Energy Group (NEG) and Moerup Industrial Windmill Construction Company (Micon). The company was merged with another Danish wind turb ...

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. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

/ BTM Consult, 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 Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

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 that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...

, 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 (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

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. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. 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 assure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

and

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

.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, which was extended in 2013. On 13 August 2012, an estimated 90 workers were laid off from the Pueblo facility. 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 Colorado municipalities#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, Larimer and Weld County, Colorado, Weld counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. According to the 2020 census, the population of the ...

. Vestas has a

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a streamlined container for aircraft parts such as Aircraft engine, engines, fuel or equipment. When attached entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached with a Hardpoint#Pylon, pylo ...

manufacturing facility in

Brighton, Colorado Brighton is a home rule city located in Adams and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Brighton is the county seat of Adams County and is a part of the Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. The c ...

. Vestas sold its tower manufacturing facility in

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

to CS Wind in 2021. 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 A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

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. 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 acce ...

for offshore wind turbines with

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese Multinational corporation, 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 prede ...

creating MHI-Vestas, including the 7-9 MW Vestas V164, 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 coastal Trøndelag county, Norway. The district consists of the municipalities Osen, Åfjord, Ørland, Indre Fosen, Orkland, Heim, Hitra, and Frøya. In colloquial speech, Fosen also refers to the Fosen ...

project near

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

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 some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

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) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

has 666 and

Siemens Wind Power Siemens AG ( ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It is focused on Industrial control system, industrial automation, Building automation , building automation, rail transport a ...

has 242.Rosen, Ellen
Intellectual Property
''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

'', 11 October 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010. In October 2009, Vestas and

QinetiQ QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

claimed a successful test of a stealth wind turbine blade mitigating

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

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

. Cnet, 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. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

'', 2 November 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2010.Appleton, Steve
Stealth blades – a progress report
''

''. 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 (the former

Maersk (), usually known simply as Maersk ( ), is a Danish Freight transport, shipping and logistics company founded in 1904 by Arnold Peter Møller and his father Peter Mærsk Møller. Maersk's business activities include Port operator, port operat ...

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

Series production Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. ...

of nacelles for the 32 turbines (256 MW) extension of the 90 MW Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm occurs at Lindø, while blades are made at Vestas' Isle of Wight facilitiesBredsdorff, Magnus.
Nu indleder Vestas serieproduktion af verdens største havmølle
''

Ingeniøren ''Ingeniøren'' (full name: ''Nyhedsmagasinet Ingeniøren'', literally ''The News Magazine "The Engineer"'') is a Danish weekly newspaper specialising in engineering topics. History and profile The paper has covered science and technology issues ...

'', 22 December 2014. Retrieved: 24 December 2014. in England.Dyrskjøt, Mette
Vestas builds turbines at Lindø
'' Børsen'', 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 Person names Surnames * Dǒng (surna ...

tested a prototype in the sea off

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

in 2013, at a cost of DKK 240 million.Nymark, Jen
Seaturbines competitive in 15 years
'' Børsen'', 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 in 2014, later uprated to more power. In June 2011, the Vestas

supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of 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 instruc ...

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 Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber ...

supercomputer from 2008 to

Aalborg University Aalborg University (AAU) is an international public university with campuses in Aalborg, Esbjerg, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1974, the university awards bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhD degrees in a wide variety of subje ...

. 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,

Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

, 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 KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

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 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 15 MW wind turbine prototype and claims that it has a

capacity factor The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the theoretical maximum electrical energy output over that period. The theoretical maximum energy output of a given installation is def ...

of over 60%. Vestas operates a blade recycling facility in the US. File:Vestas V126-3.45 MW guyed tower at Østerild, 2017.jpg, Vestas V126-3.45 MW guyed tower 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, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, 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 Companies in the OMX Copenhagen 25 Companies in the OMX Nordic 40 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