Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s leading provider of wind energy solutions, announced the opening of its Vestas Singapore office to consolidate its operations in the strategic market under one roof. As a centre of excellence and one of Vestas largest R&D facilities, Vestas Singapore will play a central role in powering the company’s strong business growth in Asia, and around the world.
Vestas Singapore will house over 200 staff members, including 120 engineers, currently employed by Vestas various business units in Singapore. With its regional headquarters for Sales and Operations, R&D, Group IT and Spare Parts and Repair in one location, Vestas will be able to better serve its customers through seamless end-to-end service delivery and customer-centric innovation to best meet their needs. The hub will also enable Vestas to accelerate its capabilities in harnessing wind power and advancing the growth of the sector – contributing to the global vision of achieving energy sustainability and security. Vestas Singapore will be located at the new Mapletree Business City, a move that is aligned with Vestas’ global policy of promoting energy efficiency, green buildings and infrastructure, and sustainable development.
Since establishing its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore in 2006, Vestas has significantly expanded its regional presence. Buoyed by the keen interest and demand in Asia for wind power technology, Vestas installed over 1,000MW in markets such as Taiwan, India, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand last year – bringing its total base to 4,600MW installed across the region as of December 2010. Vestas will ride on this momentum to tap the business opportunities for wind development in emerging markets in Southeast Asia, in particular Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Sean Sutton, President, Vestas Asia Pacific, Singapore, said: “Singapore – with its reputation as a leading energy hub and pioneer in innovation, coupled with the country’s well-established strengths as a launch pad to Asia – is a strategic location for Vestas. We are excited to be renewing our commitment to grow with Singapore’s dynamic energy sector with the opening of our Vestas Singapore office. Vestas is well-placed to deliver on our vision to make Wind on par with Oil and Gas and to offer our customers and partners the best in wind power solutions from this world-class facility.”
To celebrate Global Wind Day and as part of Vestas’ goal of fuelling dialogue on energy issues, the company is also holding the second Vestas Wind Forum in Singapore today. Over 125 leaders and members of the industry, and academia from local universities are participating in the dialogue on the theme, “Clean and Safe Energy for Asia – Powering Wind Energy Development through Expertise in Singapore”.
“Bringing together the best minds through platforms like the Vestas Wind Forum enables the industry to identify issues impacting the energy world – a critical first step to solving challenges we face. Vestas is dedicated to working with our partners to translate insights and dialogue into action. To this end, Vestas invests in innovation, which is at the heart of everything we do, and we are encouraged by the success of the many research and development partnerships we have in Singapore,” said Peter Cheng, Managing Director and Vice President, Tech R&D Singapore.
Most recently, Vestas signed an agreement with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to set up a Joint Materials Lab within the School of Materials Science and Engineering. NTU is also one of seven preferred university partners that Vestas has identified globally for value-added collaborations across multi-disciplinary areas of science and technology. Vestas has also established Master Research Agreements with Singapore varsities and research institutions, NTU, National University of Singapore and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) since 2007.
