Global wind giant expects lower costs from new turbine equipped with extra-long blades

A powerful new turbine unveiled overnight by Danish wind giant Vestas has been designed with longer blades to help extract more power and deliver lower costs, particularly in regions that experience periods of low wind speed.

Vestas unveiled its new V182-7.2 MW wind turbine in Germany on Monday, marking the latest iteration of the company’s widely used EnVentus platform, which so far has more than 15 gigawatts (GW) of capacity installed across more than 25 countries.

The blades are 89 metres long, around three metres longer than its current most powerful model, known as the V172-7.2 MW, which is expected to make its debut in Australia at Tilt Renewables’ new 288 MW Palmer wind farm, now under construction in South Australia.

The longer blades – or larger rotor, as it is technically called – deliver higher and more stable energy yields, especially at low and medium wind speeds, which is usually when wholesale electricity prices are higher.

This, in turn, improves overall generation output and revenue certainty, helping developers bid competitively without relying solely on upfront cost reductions.

Vestas estimates that the new turbines could deliver up to 6 per cent higher annual energy production for Australian wind projects, and up to 3 per cent lower levelised cost of energy (LCOE), while also maintaining balance-of-plant savings.

This will be welcome in an industry suffering and stalled by a significant lift in costs in recent years, due to equipment price increases, supply chain issues, surging labour costs and the rising cost of capital.

Danny Nielsen, Vestas country manager and senior vice president of Australia and NZ, says the release of the new turbine design comes at a critical time for the Australian wind industry, which is just emerging from a lengthy investment drought, with a handful of new projects reaching financial close and starting construction in recent months.

“We feel that the [Australian] market is opening up now,” Nielsen told Renew Economy in an interview.

“And we will start to see … more and more wind getting to FID [final investment decision] over the next two, two-and-a-half, three years.

“When you look at the areas where wind is really needed, then you go into the lower wind speeds, and by putting a bigger rotor on, but maintaining your rating, you generally capture more of the wind and still get a high capacity factor out of it.”

Nielsen says the new turbine model also comes with upgraded cybersecurity protections to the turbines’ control systems.

“I think that’s quite often overlooked,” he says. “We have to remember that, in principle, the fuel is free, right? So it’s that independence and the security we need as as a nation.”

Vestas says it chose to use its existing platform, and upgrade it with a larger rotor and gearbox improvements rather than a substantial product redesign. This is important because it requires no material changes to project design or grid connection and development approval processes for developers.

It also means that the turbines are interchangeable with the previous EnVentus model, the V172-7.2 MW, and there is no phase-out of the old model, which in the past has resulted in developers having to resubmit plans and seek amendments to approvals. 

This approach also marks a variance from the global race to make bigger and bigger turbines with higher and higher power ratings that has been a feature of the industry in recent years.

That has been connected to an increase in turbine faults and failures and some industry analysts say it has put undue pressure on supply chains, with transport companies, factories and project developers unable to keep up.

“This is … just a pure evolution of the EnVentus platform we have,” Nielsen says.

“We’re not really changing the reliability – we keep building on … what we already have. It’s what the grid operators already know …what we call the ‘wide capabilities’ that it has to connect to the grid will be maintained.”

What does change is the turbine’s “rotor-to-rating ratio,” which improves the turbine’s capacity factor by up to 2 per cent compared to the V172-7.2 MW. 

Vestas says some of the developers it has consulted with on the new turbine have already placed orders to use it in upcoming Australian projects, although these deals are subject to commercial in confidence and are not yet being made public.

It says Australia is “explicitly named” as a strong-fit for the new turbine, with improved capture prices (1–3%) and higher capacity factor “helping projects perform through Australia’s increasingly complex wholesale electricity pricing and grid constraints.”

Nielsen says the decision to keep the turbine footprint the same is also important in terms of helping developers to navigate environmental approvals and conditions.

“I think that it’s important to stress that we have no changes to the footprint … [and] we have a range of options to help bird migration and all that in different tower heights.

“For example, we have had some requests from the EPBC process, where there has been a specific height for bird migration … and we have been able to accommodate that with with technology changes,” he tells Renew Economy.

Tilt Renewables, which is one of the developers Vestas consulted on the changes to the 7.2 MW turbine, says innovations tailored to Australia’s particular needs and conditions are always welcome.

“We’ve partnered with Vestas on several projects and understand and trust their EnVentus platform, so we welcomed the opportunity to get some early insights into their latest turbine technology,” said Tilt’s head of commercial, Katrina Langdon.

“It’s exactly the kind of innovation we like to see from industry and reinforces how important collaboration is to delivering Australia’s energy transition.”

Vestas says a production ramp-up of the V182-7.2 MW turbines will begin in the second half of 2027, with availability in specific countries subject to commercial guidelines. A prototype and first generation is planned for the final quarter of 2027.

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