As Maine’s First Wind project looks to move forward, a maker of the wind turbine blades will soon be delivering the technology to the New England location. Vestas Wind Systems will fulfill First Wind’s order of 148 MW for V112-3.0 MW turbines in the U.S. in the 2nd quarter of 2015 with the blades expected to be turning by the end of next year.
Vestas has received an order for 48 V112-3.0 MW turbines for the 148-MW Oakfield project in the state of Maine. The order is a call-off on the master supply agreement (MSA) announced in December 2013 for multiple U.S. projects, the potential of which totals 718 MW. With today’s order, Vestas has secured 298 MW under this MSA.
The highly popular V112-3.0 MW turbines – for which Vestas has already received almost 6 GW of orders – will be supplied for this project. The project will also include a 10-year Active Output Management (AOM) 5000 service agreement. AOM 5000 is an energy-based availability guarantee that ensures the turbines are operational when the wind is blowing. This service option includes the VestasOnline® surveillance system that remotely controls and monitors the turbines and minimizes lost production by predicting when maintenance may be required.
“We’re pleased to continue the construction of the Oakfield Wind project and look forward to installing Vestas’ V112-3.0 MW turbines there,” said First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor. “The Vestas turbines at our Bull Hill project in Maine and the Palouse project in Washington State have performed well and we expect the Oakfield project to enjoy similar success.”
This is the fourth project Vestas and First Wind have done together and their second in Maine. The other project in Maine has achieved 99 per cent availability since it was commissioned two years ago.