'Customers don't expect if steel goes up 70%, Vestas can do some magic and it disappears': CEO

Andersen said some of that extra cost would inevitably find its way into negotiations with customers over certain projects, but “customers also appreciate that what is being delivered as a technology solution has to last 20 or 30 years.”

Vestas’ average selling price (ASP) for its turbines rose to €0.8m/MW in the first quarter from €0.72m/MW a year earlier, although the company stressed that measure included a highly complex range of factors related to specific projects scopes and geographies across both periods.

And Andersen said any current pressures need to be seen in the context of wind’s overall pricing journey.

“When you look in the last decade and see [wind's] levelised cost of energy (LCOE) dropping by two-thirds, that wasn’t because the commodity [prices] dropped. It was because we optimised the technology.

“LCOE is now at a level where it is competitive to do the transition,” while technical innovations such as the OEM’s 15MW offshore turbine would continue to bear down on cost of energy.

Andersen also said the big picture for wind was that the technology was just “scratching the surface” in its global journey, citing the long-term potential that could be unleashed by policy announcements such as those by US President Joe Biden in recent weeks.

One team on- and offshore

The Vestas chief said full integration of the former MHI Vestas offshore wind joint venture had already met with an enthusiastic response from customers who “say what a real joy, now we can have one conversation with one team”.

Andersen said Vestas could now “combine onshore and offshore in one customer meeting” adding that the Danish group is seeking to build “a joint business that is able to operate globally – the business we had in offshore was not global at the time of takeover.

“I’ve spoken to more customers in the first month of the ownership of the combined business than I did in the previous six months.”