Vestas revealed its plans to stop production at its nacelle assembly factory in León, Spain owing to a decreasing demand for its 2MW wind turbine platform in Europe.
Image: Vestas to cease production at Leon nacelle assembly factory. Photo: courtesy of Vestas Wind Systems A/S.
The move from the Danish wind turbine company said to be caused by recent market developments will impact all the 362 employees of the nacelle assembly factory, which was established in 2005.
On the other hand, Vestas said that the demand for its 4MW platform in Europe can be addressed by less capacity compared to what is being delivered by its nacelle factories in Europe and other regions where it has recently set up production capacity.
The company going by the Spanish law will launch negotiations with local works councils for the impacted employees at the nacelle assembly factory in León. It also plans to look into possibilities of shifting some of the employees at the León site to other manufacturing and service sites in Spain, in addition to opportunities outside of the company via an outplacement plan.
Vestas, in a statement, said: “Spain remains a key market to Vestas with more than 4 GW of installed turbines, 6 GW under service and around 2,000 employees as of 30 June 2018.
“Vestas continues to have a strong local footprint to serve Spanish and international markets, including a generator factory in Viviero and a blades factory in Daimiel where Vestas is investing to set up production of blades for the V150-4.2 MW turbine.”
The Danish wind turbine manufacturer said that the financial cost of stopping production at the nacelle assembly factory in León will be related mainly to write-down of land and buildings. The company plans to book the expenses in this regard as special items and will included them in third quarter of 2018.
Earlier this month, Vestas bagged an order from Xcel Energy to supply V120-2.2 MW turbines for the 200MW Blazing Star Wind Project in the US state of Minnesota. The V120-2.2 MW is the newest addition to Vestas’ 2MW platform.