Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has signed a EUR 475 million (approximately USD 483 million) green loan with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support its research, development, and innovation (RDI) activities through 2025.
“ As the need to accelerate the green energy transition has never been more urgent, our ability to invest in innovation and technology development now is key to scale the build-out of renewable energy for decades to come”, said Hans Martin Smith , Executive Vice President & CFO of Vestas.
Vestas said that the company will use the money to develop the V236-15.0 MW offshore wind turbine, which was launched in February 2021, and to finance other RDI projects.
The EIB-supported activities will be conducted mainly at the company’s research and development centres in Aarhus, Denmark, and Porto, Portugal.
Vestas is currently working on the V236-15.0 MW prototype, which will be installed in the second half of this year at the Østerild National test centre for large wind turbines in Western Jutland, Denmark.
Vestas’s Lindø factory in Denmark, which will house serial production of the nacelles for the 15 MW model, is also currently engaged in developing the prototype.
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Stretching 280 metres into the air with a production output of 80 GWh/year, the V236-15.0 MW prototype will be the tallest and most powerful wind turbine in the world once installed later this year, according to Vestas.
With a swept area exceeding 43,000 m2 , the V236-15.0 MW will produce around80 GWh of electricity a year, enough to power around 20,000 European households and displace more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent to removing 25,000 passenger cars from the road every year.
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