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Revenue at the Danish firm totalled €1.89 billion, up 29% from €1.46 billion in the same period of 2016.

Gross profit grew 72% to €301 million, while EBTIDA increased to €377 million.

Order intake, however, fell from €2bn to €1.8bn, corresponding to 2.05GW in turbine capacity.

Most of the fall took place in Europe, which fell from over 1.88GW to 802MW. This reflected a 1GW order in Q1 2016 in Norway.

"If you take out the Statkraft deal we had in Q1 2016 it is fairly stable in terms of figures we have in Europe," said Morten Dyrholm, Vestas' group senior vice president of marketing, communications and public affairs.

Order intake in the Asia-Pacific region increased to almost six times as high from 2016, totaling 326MW in this quarter.

"You are starting to see the first results of the China strategy. We have been making progress both with the new products we have there and now also the new organisation," Dyrholm told “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç.

"It's a long-term [strategy] for us to gain a very strong position in China. We are happy to again be back as the largest foreign manufacturer in China and I am sure we will see more success for us, but no doubt it's going to be a bit lumpy. It is a difficult market but I think we are making good progress."

The manufacturer maintained its 2017 guidance for revenue of €9.25-10.25 billion. Total investments are set to reach approximately €350 million, the company added.

Offshore joint venture MHI Vestas recorded revenue of €126 million, up from €41 million in the first quarter of last year.

This was due to it receiving its largest order to date from Dong Energy for the 448MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore project in Germany.

Repowering

The firm noted the increasing potential of the repowering market, something Dyrholm believes will become a major part of Vestas' business beyond 2020. 

"We are seeing the first signs of repowering markets emerging in the US, Germany and other places. [In] many of these first-mover markets, repowering is going to be significant," Dyrholm said. 

"A lot of it hinges on being able to clear some of the regulatory hurdles. It should not be, if you want to repower a project, that you can't reuse, for example, any of the old environmental regulations and sitings that you had before. There needs to be some kind of process where these repowerings become a bit more smooth.

"That is something WindEurope is working on to see if we can find best practice on repowering. There is still a lot of open questions from a regulatory point of view but I think the market is for sure pushing toward repowering.

"I think if you look beyond 2020 period then absolutely, repowering will become a big part of the focus for Vestas."