Vestas will start producing the world’s biggest wind-turbine nacelles at Odense Port in 2024

The Danish wind turbine giant Vestas has announced that they will start producing the world’s biggest nacelle for wind turbines at Odense Port in 2024.

Denmark is internationally acknowledged for a strong wind turbine industry, and with Vestas’ expansion at Odense Port, this stronghold is secured.  

Vestas will strengthen the development of the export of the world’s biggest wind turbines by starting building the world’s biggest brain for wind turbines in Odense – the nacelle. The parts for the prototype for the world’s biggest wind turbines are being developed, and therefore, bigger nacelles are needed. 

Since 2012, Vestas has produced over 700 nacelles for wind turbines at Odense Port, but only for smaller wind turbines. Before they can start building nacelles for the world’s biggest wind turbine, an expansion of the factory and testing facilities is needed, and in that process, new green jobs are going to be created.

The world’s biggest wind turbines will measure 280 meters in height, and their wings will be 115,5 meters in total. This means that each wind turbine will cover an area of almost 44.000 square meters. Furthermore, each wind turbine will produce 80 gigawatt-hours per year, which is enough to cover more than 20.000 households with energy, harvested offshore. The wind turbines are meant to be placed offshore, but the prototype will be assembled and tested on land in Denmark. 

 Odense Port – a new hotspot for green solutions

Since “Lindø Industripark” was bought by Odense Port, the area has rapidly been growing, and today, some of the most unique facilities securing optimal settings for production, storage, and discharging of big components within both sustainable wind turbine production and offshore installations, maritime shipyard-industry, and heavy production are to be found here. 

“We are a modern harbor, and we are a valuable partner when you need to move goods or need to have something produced in large scales, like foundations, or nacelles for wind turbines. From the beginning, we have been a place where the green transition had space to grow”, says director at Odense Port Carsten Aa to Fynsk Erhverv and adds: 

“A new report from Wind Europe points out that investments in deeper fairways, extended harbor areas, and deeper basins are needed – some of these investments have already started. At the same time, we are located perfectly between The Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and The Irish Sea, where a lot of the large wind turbines are going to be placed – and that is crucial regarding the green transition, where the products and the productions are so big that it can not be transported by land”.

Mid-May, it was revealed, that Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and Holland have made an agreement in Esbjerg that will secure a tenfold increase of the capacity for sustainable power towards 2050. This means that there will be busier at Odense Port than expected, which the director at Odense Port, Carsten Aa celebrates. He further mentions that the new acceleration and the components of the new wind turbines are so big that they can not be produced in other harbors than the Odense-based harbor. 

Because of Vestas’ expansion at Odense Port and the new Esbjerg agreement, it is once again proven that Denmark, and especially Funen, has become a front-runner within the green transition and production in general.

Further information:

Anders Boe-Hansen
Special Consultant
aboh@odense.dk
+45 2037 2319