Vattenfall and Siemens Gamesa are working together on the development of the new 11 MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines for offshore Wind Farm Hollandse Kust Zuid. Hollandse Kust Zuid will be the first offshore wind farm to install a new series of wind turbines: the Siemens Gamesa Direct Drive 11 MW. These 140 new turbines will be the biggest ever to be installed at scale. To ensure that they will soon be able to supply green energy for decades, Siemens Gamesa is performing intensive tests with a prototype installed onshore in Østerild, Denmark. We spoke with Kevin Metcalfe, Wind Turbine Package Manager at Vattenfall, and with Peter Esmann and Rasmus Holm, Senior Product Manager and Chief Engineer at Siemens Gamesa. They discussed the intensive cooperation between the two companies and the development of these new turbines. At the start of the collaboration between Vattenfall and Siemens Gamesa, the Siemens Gamesa Direct Drive 11 MW was selected as the turbine of choice for Hollandse Kust Zuid. At that time, each turbine was planned to feature a 193-meter rotor diameter. A few months ago, following an intensive thought process and lots of calculations, it was decided to upgrade to a rotor diameter of 200 meters. Kevin Metcalfe from Vattenfall explains why: “The larger blades result in a ~2,100 m2 increase in the swept area, which is about the size of eight tennis courts. This means the turbines generate even more green energy throughout their lifetime, even at lower wind speeds, which is important for a subsidy-free wind farm such as Hollandse Kust Zuid.”1,200 Direct Drive turbines at sea The biggest challenge that Siemens Gamesa sees for the coming year is scaling up the production process from a single prototype to serial production of one to two turbines per day. While the towers are almost the same for the 8 MW turbines and production can be scaled up quickly with familiar suppliers, the nacelle contains all kinds of new parts.
Vattenfall and Siemens Gamesa are working together on the development of the new 11 MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines for offshore Wind Farm Hollandse Kust Zuid. Hollandse Kust Zuid will be the first offshore wind farm to install a new series of wind turbines: the Siemens Gamesa Direct Drive 11 MW. These 140 new turbines will be the biggest ever to be installed at scale. To ensure that they will soon be able to supply green energy for decades, Siemens Gamesa is performing intensive tests with a prototype installed onshore in Østerild, Denmark. We spoke with Kevin Metcalfe, Wind Turbine Package Manager at Vattenfall, and with Peter Esmann and Rasmus Holm, Senior Product Manager and Chief Engineer at Siemens Gamesa. They discussed the intensive cooperation between the two companies and the development of these new turbines. At the start of the collaboration between Vattenfall and Siemens Gamesa, the Siemens Gamesa Direct Drive 11 MW was selected as the turbine of choice for Hollandse Kust Zuid. At that time, each turbine was planned to feature a 193-meter rotor diameter. A few months ago, following an intensive thought process and lots of calculations, it was decided to upgrade to a rotor diameter of 200 meters. Kevin Metcalfe from Vattenfall explains why: “The larger blades result in a ~2,100 m2 increase in the swept area, which is about the size of eight tennis courts. This means the turbines generate even more green energy throughout their lifetime, even at lower wind speeds, which is important for a subsidy-free wind farm such as Hollandse Kust Zuid.”1,200 Direct Drive turbines at sea The biggest challenge that Siemens Gamesa sees for the coming year is scaling up the production process from a single prototype to serial production of one to two turbines per day. While the towers are almost the same for the 8 MW turbines and production can be scaled up quickly with familiar suppliers, the nacelle contains all kinds of new parts.
