As the world embraces the need for sustainable energy solutions, Vestas has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the renewable energy landscape. With an extensive footprint in the U.S., Vestas helps maintain and operate nearly 15,000 turbines across the country. Part of ensuring the smooth operations of Vestas’technology includes a reliable vehicle fleet that can transport the wind turbine technicians and their tools and equipment to often remote wind parks.
Vestas has recently taken a significant step towards furthering its commitment to the sustainability strategy by integrating more than 300 Ford F-150 Lightnings into its service fleet and Ford Pro Chargers across the network to keep them powered up.
As part of its comprehensive sustainability strategy, Vestas has a goal of becoming a carbon neutral company by 2030 without using carbon offsets. To help achieve this goal, Vestas has started a journey of transitioning its service vehicle fleet to electric or sustainably fueled vehicles. In North America, Vestas’ service fleet comprises of around 1,850 vehicles; with the recent order of 300+ Ford F-150 Lightnings, electric vehicles will make up 20% of the fleet.
To keep these vehicles powered up while maximizing our energy efficiency, Vestas is leveraging the interoperability of Ford Pro’s charging hardware and solutions that can be used not only with the F-150 Lightnings, but also across a variety of multi-make vehicles.
The location of wind parks across the U.S. demands a vehicle that can carry equipment and tools while navigating off-road terrain. Initially, when EVs emerged in the market, it was challenging to find larger options capable of storing and transporting the necessary tools the wind turbine technicians use when conducting maintenance or other work on a wind turbine. Therefore, the introduction of an EV pickup truck, such as the Ford F-150 Lightning, is ideal for the operations, combining utility, range, and sustainability.
Many Vestas service contracts are at wind parks located in remote areas, resulting in higher expenditures on fuel for conventional vehicles. The emergence of EV options presents an exciting opportunity, as the energy produced by Vestas wind turbines can now be utilized to power the service vehicles.
Additionally, the wind turbine technicians can power their tools with the F-150 Lightning’s Pro Power Onboard, a mobile energy source that powers devices and tools.
As said by Michael Kraft, Vestas’ Fleet Manager in North America, “Vestas is on an ambitious sustainability journey, and we need to collaborate with like-minded leaders across the various sectors of our supply chain to reach our bold targets. With Ford being one of those leaders here in the US, incorporating the F-150 Lightnings into our service fleet was a good fit for us.”
