Offshore market leader Siemens Gamesa launched a 14 MW turbine with a 222-meter rotor in May this year. Deliveries to the Dogger Bank project in the U.K could begin as early as 2023.
GE, meanwhile, shot into offshore contention with its Haliade-X platform with capacities of 12 and 13 MW and a 220-meter rotor size. So what should we expect to see from the next generation of turbines? Today, MHI Vestas turbines top out at 10 MW with rotor sizes of 164 meters, or up to 174 meters in a 9.5 MW iteration. As an investor with a 2.5 percent stake and a seat on the board, MHI can still benefit.
“Mitsubishi will be concerned about pushing the investment button and spending another €400 million or €500 million on ramping up this supply chain,” added Barla.īringing the next offshore turbines in-house means maximizing savings with Vestas and boosting profitability in the process. Over the last five quarters, MHI Vestas' best result has been a profit of €22 million on revenue of €534 million. “ a strong pipeline to execute over the next four years, but beyond 2024, their market share is going to plummet if they don’t introduce the next generation,” says Barla.īarla suggests that with the underwhelming returns from MHI Vestas, JV partner MHI may have decided it wasn’t prepared to assume half the risk associated with developing, testing and launching a new platform. Now or neverĪs CEO Andersen said, the current turbines on MHI Vestas’ books aren’t going to get the company into a market leadership position by 2025. A fresh technology platform that could leapfrog the firm to a position alongside, or even ahead of, Siemens Gamesa and General Electric was necessary. That strong financial position changes the calculus on its approach to offshore wind. can absorb these projects onto own books,” Barla explained.īut in its Q2 2020 report, Vestas’ balance sheet was just shy of €15 billion. “Vestas has grown significantly in the last six years, and it now has a sizable balance sheet. With a weakened balance sheet, Vestas was better placed to accelerate its offshore business with a partner. Offshore projects are not small endeavors. Vestas posted losses in 2011, 20, with its 2012 loss amounting to a staggering €963 million. Shashi Barla, Wood Mackenzie's principal analyst for the global wind supply chain, suggests the answer could be rooted in both the past and the future. MHI Vestas was created in April 2014, he pointed out. That said, MHI and Vestas previously maintained that the partnership model best suited them both.
#CALL OF THE SEA TURBINE PUZZLE PLUS#
That conference call will offer a glance at what its investors make of the move, plus perhaps coloring in some additional detail.įor those watching Vestas closely, bringing the offshore business entirely in-house was always a possibility given the obvious cost-savings potential. Vestas reports its third-quarter results later this week. To seize that title from Siemens Gamesa, Vestas will launch a new technology platform for the next generation of the company's offshore wind turbines. “We won’t achieve market leadership with the current turbine," Andersen noted. The goal is for Vestas to lead in market share in the fast-growing global offshore wind turbine space by 2025, Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen said during a Thursday conference call with investors to discuss the transaction. The €700 million ($814 million) all-stock deal revealed last week will give Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) a 2.5 percent stake in Vestas, while MHI Vestas will be folded into Vestas effective immediately. Global turbine leader Vestas has taken sole control of its offshore wind joint venture, a move that says a lot about Vestas' current standing in the sector - and even more about where wind power is headed.