Vestas has unveiled a modular, customisable nacelle design to optimise time to market and ease logistics, construction, operation and maintenance.
The turbine manufacturer said that by dividing the nacelle into manageable modular subcomponents “it aims to take advantage of industrial standards rather than challenging them”.
It said the move takes the entire value-chain into account in the efforts to ensure continued renewable energy competitiveness and scale.
The modularised structure is divided into a main nacelle house, and one or more side-compartments depending on configuration.
These are dimensionally designed to correspond to general industry logistics standards such as shipping containers, for road, rail, and ocean transportation.
This means that the modularised nacelle units can be transported while adhering to tunnels, bridge heights, rail systems with less need for specialised handling.
Side-compartments can, in general, house many different types of relevant technologies or applications.
Utilising a simple click-on system, the modular concept facilitates smart servicing solutions and opens up upgrade and innovation possibilities over the lifetime of the operating asset, Vestas said.
Following the release modular nacelle design, Vestas plans to subsequently expand to encompass the whole turbine.