So good afternoon to everybody out there virtual. My name is Bert Nueberg. I'm the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and I'm pleased to welcome you to Vesta's Annual General Meeting for 2021. Once again, we are conveying this meeting with the option to attend virtually in the interest of upholding important safety measure with regards to COVID-nineteen. In my upcoming address, I will discuss Vesta's 2020 performance and the opportunities that lies ahead of the business.
Before this, I would like to invite Claus Sorgaard from Golarsson Fidderspiel to lay out the formalities for today so we can ensure that everything runs as scheduled. Again, thank you for joining our Annual General Meeting under the current circumstances. Thank you for understanding we need to meet virtually where possible. Claus, over to you.
Thank you very much, and a warm welcome to everyone here at Vista's headquarters in Aarhus. The Board of Directors has encouraged shareholders not to participate physically in today's AGM, And by far, the most shareholders have agreed to this. Instead, it's been possible to vote by postal vote or by proxy. It's been possible to ask questions ahead of time and also interventions ahead of time. At the same time, you can the follow the web streaming of the AGM.
As the Chairman of the AGM, I need to check that everything has been in accordance with articles of the association, which has happened. One of the things that had to happen was that the AGM has to take place in either the mid Jutland region or the capital region of Denmark before the 1st May. It has to be convened the between 3 to 5 weeks before the date through the website and through a communication the Through the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and to shareholders who have asked for a letter. And that has occurred on the 15th March. So that's Correct.
I've also checked that everything has been put forward, which has to be put forward in accordance with the legislation. So yes, We are quarried and we are convened correctly. Most of the things we need to vote on today Can be adopted by a simple majority, but 8.2% to 8.5% requires 2 thirds majority in capital and votes. 88 shareholders have signed up. 128 have given a proxy to the board and 1141 have Voted beforehand.
So a very large part of the share capital is represented today. The votes which have been cast already mean that all the proposals on the agenda will also be adopted with over 90% majority on all items, so I hope we don't need to have an actual voting procedure. As usual, the first items on the agenda will be proposed as one. That is the report on the company's activities, presentation adoption of the annual report and allocation of the result of the year. So Bert Norberg will start and then the CEO, Henne Gunnarson will take over.
So I give the floor to Bert Norberg first.
Dear shareholder. 2020 marked an extraordinary period in the world history where many industry faced unprecedented disruption from the pandemic. While Vestas was not immune to this disruption, 2020 also saw the Renewable Industry Thriving, and our own growth journey has steadily gained momentum with this acceleration. Despite an ongoing battle against the pandemic and its challenges, Vestas secured deliveries for more than 17 gigawatt, a steady increase from the previous year. And with our highest ever order backlog of €43,000,000,000 driven in part by our transaction and integration of the full ownership of our offshore business.
2020 was the busiest year ever. We now have a strong foundation in place, and we are ready to capture the rapid growth that lies ahead for renewables. The offshore arm of our business is now firmly back within the Vestas family, and we have begun a new technological journey to expand the scale of our solution to bold new heights. Our new global development business unit will allow Vestas to capture value from a much broader portion of the renewable value chain. And our service business has hit record growth, reaching 100 gigawatt of turbines under service.
Furthermore, we are now translating this success into value for our shareholders throughout the significant dividend payout. 2020 was not without challenges, however. Supply change disruption and quality issues have impacted our profitability. This is a key issue that we are working on to address through focused dedication and company wide collaboration. Establishing a profitable scale will be crucial for Vestas as wind energy grows to meet the majority of global energy demand.
As we move forward, we are fortunate to be playing an integral role in the global energy transition. CIN. Across the world, we are seeing an increase in global commitment to a net zero future. This is spurred on by the need for sustainable economic recovery and the growing confidence in the dependability of renewables. At Vestas, we are proud to be driving this confidence.
As the pandemic threat and economies, supply chains and even entire industry. We have succeeded in maintaining business continuity, ensuring our partners can provide stable power supply. This increase in confidence signals potential for growth and this will opportunity for growth will underpin our focus moving forward, ensuring profitable scale through strong execution. As a testament to our focus and before Henrik Andersen takes you through our result in detail, I would like take a moment to reflect on some of the 2020 highlights. We reached a revenue of €14,800,000,000 up 22% from 2019.
We secured delivery of more than 17 gigawatt in a challenging COVID environment, up 35% compared to 2019. We achieved an all time high order backlog of EUR 43,000,000,000 We grew services revenue by 10% with an EBIT margin of over 27%. We reduced our total recordable injury rate by 15%. We recorded an EBIT margin of 5.1%, and it's a decrease of 3.2% compared to 2019. We displaced CO2 emissions from with 186,000,000 tons avoided in 2020.
And we achieved a 33% reduction across our own carbon emission. Throughout the period of crippling disruption, Vestas has adapted to mobility restrictions an insurer, the rapid implementation of safety infrastructure. Combined with our consistently strong execution, we have outperformed our competition across several parameters without compromising on safety. Our profitability is, of course, an urgent priority. We will address this by optimizing our operational approach, inspiring culture change and supporting a heightening focus on flawless execution.
Overall, we aim to capture growth with our core wind business, including our newly established focus on offshore and development as well as maintaining market differentiation with our sustainability performance. I'd like to thank the Vestas leadership team for successfully implementing and executing these initiatives where lockdowns and restrictions in the unusual year of 2020. As we continue our upward trajectory, the board is recommending that we pay a dividend for the 7th years in a row. Long term profitability will remain our key priority so that we can continue to deliver value back to you, our shareholders. In 2020, the Board of Directors continued to work closely with executive management to ensure Vesta strategy reflects the evolving renewable industry.
To fully leverage the opportunity ahead, the Board has worked closely with the executive management to guarantee that Vestas' new strategic direction are reflected in our ongoing governance. As Chairman, a key objective for me is to ensure that we have the right expertise reflected in the board. This year, Castenbier will not stand for reelection. I would like to thank him for his great contribution to Vestas over the last 10 years within the board and for his dedicated contribution the Audit Committee and Technology and Manufacturing Committee. In October 2020, We and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan signed an agreement to expand our partnership in sustainable energy.
The strength and partnership of Vestas acquiring Mitsubishi shares in MHI Vestas Offshore Wind joint venture and Mitsubishi acquiring 2.5 percent stake in Vestas. In light of this, we have agreed to nominate Mr. Kentaro Hosomi for a seat in the Vestas Board of Director. As Chief Regional Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mr. Hosome brings a wealth of expertise from the engineering and innovation space.
With more than 40 years of experience in power system at Energy Industries and with valuable knowledge of the business development of power system. I'm confident he will make a strong addition to the board. In light of Vestas' ongoing development and expectation for future growth continuity of composition of the board the has been and will be a major advantage for the company. In this regard, we assess that this need for such continuity will remain. Before sharing what the board the I am the Vice President of the Investor Future.
I would like to address the renumeration policy for the board and executive management. The Remuneration Policy and the Remuneration Report 2020 are available on the company website, but allow me to recap the key aspects. In 2020, the Board of Directors received a total remuneration of DKK 10,600,000. This was in accordance with the remuneration level approved by the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting in 2020 as well as with the remuneration policy. Detailed information about the remuneration payments in 2020 is available in the remuneration report.
The report will be presented for advisory vote here at the AGM for the first time, in accordance with applicable law. Having made no changes since 2018, the board recommends that the remuneration level are updated slightly. This is to reflect the increase in competition for attracting the most suitable candidates to our Board. We propose that the renumeration 2021 reflect a basic renumeration for of DKK 446,250 per board member. This would be an increase of 5%.
The Chairman receives 3 times of the basic remuneration and the Deputy Chairman receives 2 times of this remuneration for their extended board duties. In addition to the basic remuneration, we propose that the board members receive a committee fee of $262,500 per membership the Board Committee. In addition, we propose that the committee chairman receives an increase of 5% to 472,005 defender for the extended committee duties. With regards to the remuneration of the Chief Management. The Board continues to believe that the combination of fixed performance based compensation supports the company short and long term value creation for each shareholder.
The purpose of the combined remuneration is to ensure motivation and performance management towards the strategic focus area on both an annual basis as well as to us long term value creation. Executive Management. Remuneration is divided by the board under the guideline outlined in the remuneration policy and includes 4 elements: salary, bonus, share based incentive and benefits. As with many other industry Vestas have experienced the effect of the pandemic and our ongoing operation. In light of this, we have implemented a 10% reduction of salary for both our CEO and our CFO.
This reduction took effect from the 1st May 2020 for the remainder of the year. Please note that the information around the renovation for individual members of the executive management is limited to the CEO and CFO as registered directors in the 2020 remuneration report. In 2020, executive management received a fixed remuneration of €2,500,000 compared to €1,600,000 in 2019. The overall increased salary is driven by the fact that Henrik Andersen was only employed for half of the year. Overall executive management salary decreased in 2020 due to the aforementioned 10% reduction from May to December.
Executive management who has allotted a total of 42,500 shares for 2020 S in 2019. These shares will be adjusted for performance in 2020, 2021, and 2022. For 2020, the performance adjustment is expected to be a reduction of 28% for the onethree of the share. In summary, this constituted a reduction of base salary for executive management and a lower result for the variable portion of the Renumeration with no cash bonus and a larger negative impact in the performance shares for the financial year of 2020. You can read more about this in the 2020 renumeration report.
Board. And the Board conducts an evaluation of the Board work. In 2020, the evaluation was completed through an open dialogue session facilitated by myself and an online evaluation form. The self assessment revealed a good collaboration within the board and between the board and executive management as well as satisfaction with overall conduct of meetings. The Board Committee also conducted a self assessment in October November 2020 following the same procedure.
The evaluation revealed a good collaboration across each of the committees between the committees and the executive management. This year, we have 7 proposals for the agenda: an amendment of the remuneration policy to simplify the long term incentive program An amendment to the denomination of shares, renewal of amendment for the authorization of increase of the share capital, authorization to hold general meetings electronically, accordance to the Section 77.2 of the Danish company ACT, but also in line with Vesta's sustainability strategy, sustainability in everything we do. Number 5 is a resolution to grant authorization to adopt electronic communication in accordance with Section 92 of the Danish Company Act. Number 6 is authorization to the Board of Directors to distribute extraordinary dividend and lastly renewal of the authorization to acquire Treasury Share. I would like to make a few comments regarding our proposed amendment to the nomination of share and the board proposed that the denomination per share should be changed from Danish kronor 1 to Danish kronor 0.01 or multiple thereof.
The purpose is to make the proposal is to make it possible for the Board of Directors to undertake a share split in Q2 without changing the underlying value for the company. This would then support further trading of shares the removal of hindrance of share price. It is the intention of the board to carry out a share split on the ratio 1 to 5 during the first half of twenty twenty one so that each existing share of the 5 new shares nominally at the Danish 0.2 kronor. With our result and the board formalities duly presented, I would now like to share the board's perspective on 2021 beyond. Climate volatility is now making an impact across the world.
Extreme weather events and unfortunately becoming a common feature on the evening news. If there is one thing that 2020 has taught us, however, it's that adversity breeds the resilience. In parallel to the pandemic or perhaps because of it, 2020 saw the world firming up to its commitment to a net zero future. We are at the point now where many announced recovery measures has a green focus. This shows a desire to build back better and the need for building resilient societies that has never been greater.
As the global leader in sustainability and energy, we cannot underestimate the role we have to play in supporting this resilience. We have done exceptionally well to demonstrate the reliability of sustainable energy during times of crisis, but the future will ask for more from us. Renewable energy must now go beyond being seen as a reliable alternative. We must become the foundation from which society can thrive in a sustainable era. Vestas is already sowing its seeds.
And in addition to maintaining Energy Supply. We have continued to support jobs and safeguards the growth of our industry As our sustainability performance increases, we are also minimizing our environmental footprint as we build scale. And our hunger for innovation is already creating new possibility for offering more sustainable products for our customer. With this, we can drive further market differentiation. Our renewed commitment to offshore and development will see us attracting new stakeholders to the sustainable energy industry.
Our vision is to leverage our footprint network and expertise to attract new investment and broader dedication to the energy transition. The as the need of our customers evolve, we will be prepared to meet these needs with our expanded Command of Renewable Value Chain. Finally, we will continue our relentless dedication to streamline highly focused execution. Remaining unchallenged in services and delivery while tightening our approach to quality will support the profitability that we look for going forward. Wind energy is set to become the backbone of the global industry system.
Sustainability will be driving force over our economy. In 2020, Vestas showed itself to be a global leader in both. We have laid a strong foundation to play a dominant role in the global acceleration tour Net 0. All that's required now is that we have to execute. On behalf of the Board of Director, Executive Management and each of you our dedicated, skillful and very loyal employees, I I assure you we will work to achieve our vision and continue to create value for you, our owners.
I thank you for your time in support and would like to extend a special thanks to Executive Management, all the Vesta's 30,000 employee, for their hard work, loyal and dedicated work in 2020. Thank you very much. I leave the word now to Henrik Andersson. Thank you, Bert.
We would very much have like to welcome you to our head office in Aarhus so that we could also show you what we actually do here and the show you what we're proud of here at our address. But we need to put that off to 2022, and we truly look forward to that. And then we'll try to do, as we are doing today, have a set of like here, so that we can invite you, the shareholders, to come join us. My intervention today will be looking at the numbers of what we have achieved in 2020, But also looking towards the future, what will happen both when we get to 2,030 and potentially also 2,040. If If we look at this slide, there's no doubt that, as Bert said, 2020 was an extraordinary year.
But when you have an extraordinary year, you also know that the continued operation of Vestas It was our first priority to get through that year. That first priority didn't mean that we didn't focus on other strategic things Because of course we didn't, we'll talk about that today. One thing I want to mention already now is our sustainability strategy, Which are 29,000 coworkers deal with every day globally. We've really found a good record there. We also have full ownership now again in Offshore, And that has really been interesting to have the whole team vest us, and I'll be talking a bit more about that later.
Our development activities have expanded so that we now have a business unit for that and we'll be spending more time on that in the years to come. And not least, we have crossed that 100 Gigawatts milestone, which is under our service sector. So it has been an extremely interesting year in spite of COVID-nineteen. So let me begin the With COVID, because in a number of cases since 10th February when we presented our annual report, Many people have asked us, well, are we through the worst now? And the fact is we're probably not.
In many of our activity areas, we are probably in the worst lockdown so far, and that also makes things more difficult, For instance, in India, Brazil and parts of Europe, we are dealing with it. It's no longer Something that's new to us. But what's important for us to emphasize is looking at the things we have done Since January, February 2020, we have received recognition of renewable energies Energy Types in almost all of the 83 countries we are working in. And in all those countries, we have seen that our staff need to be safe. They need to be able to work.
So we need protocols to ensure health and safety For our colleagues globally, that's our top priority. It also means that when we have the continued operation of investors. We need to get the entire supply chain, all our partners, all our factories And transport, all the links in the chain have to continue. So also a great big thank you to all our stakeholders and partners For enabling us to ensure continuity. We also see that everything is a bit more sensitive.
We saw a blackout in Texas raising Questions about the supply chain. Again, the blockage of the Suez Canal caused a major stir because We are challenged in capacity globally. But that being said, I still want to Sandk, more than 29,000 employees who have done a remarkable job in ensuring Vestas continued operation, And they will continue to do so in 2021. And I think we've gotten better at finding solutions. But there's certainly no doubt that we haven't given up the When faced with challenges.
Now let me look at the finances. As Bert said, We've had a revenue of €14,800,000,000 an increase from €12,100,000,000 in 2019. We had an EBIT margin of 5.1%, which was a drop from 8.3% the year before. Free cash flow ended on 80 €4,000,000 It was €94,000,000 the year before. And our total investments ended at €659,000,000 the Against EUR 729 the year before.
These figures tell a story About the numbers, but they also tell a story about a very active year because when you look at the revenue, it's €14,800,000,000 But they cover that. Since 2018, we have grown by 46% in just 24 months. And also the gigawatts we supply to our customers has increased by 59% in those 24 months from the beginning of 2018. Those are remarkable figures. And this is only then the fact that it's possible under these conditions is remarkable.
When we look at profit, profits have gone down. And as Bert said, we will need to address this. We address it every day. One of the reasons is, of course, that we have upscaled to handle a much greater capacity. When you upscale, you need new plants And you need to establish new plants in places and continents where we haven't been before.
Also to ensure that we get don't get various 4 door import tariffs that can limit our trade. Also in 2020, we had to Set aside more funds for some of our turbines, especially when it came to blades. And that's why we had more set asides for that. That's not what we like to do, but we have the And we need to deal with that also, and we have already done a great deal. In free cash flow, we ended at EUR 84,000,000 And that was in both 'nineteen and 'twenty.
But we have also spent some of the free cash flow to build our capacity. We can't up scale so much without also having larger stocks. And that has also helped us in 2020 to supply even when there have been delays in the supply chain. Not least, we have at maintained a high investment level of €659,000,000 We, of course, invested in technology, But also in our footprint and our plants around the world. And also looking forward, we will need to invest more in offshore wind, both when it comes to technology, But also as you hear in the news, many countries and continents want to be involved in the Offshore capacity.
And of course, we will be involved in that as well. In 2020, We also had a very strong order intake of about just over 17 gigawatts. But what's impressive is that it And if you look to the right here, in the right lower corner, We have had about 10 gigawatts in 2016 to now having an order intake of over 'seventeen. And that means we've had top markets in the U. S, Brazil and China.
But as you can also see from this There are quite a few new countries who are now focusing on renewables, and that is the trend we see across the world, as Bert also mentioned. Looking at our power solutions. When you look at things quarter on quarter or year on year, the You sometimes lose perspective, but our power solutions, our wind solutions across the world now Have 132 gigawatts established in more than 80 countries, a total of 83 countries, in fact. And we have a displacement of CO2 emissions of 186,000,000 tons. These 186,000,000 tonnes is more than 120,000,000 vehicles on the road.
So we are at a level which really adds benefit to the world. As you see in 2020 also many countries have prioritized renewables. We've seen it in the EU, in South Korea, Japan and not least, we have been encouraged to see that the U. S. Has also announced in the last quarter that they rejoined the Paris agreement, but also that they say we need structural reforms in the U.
S. At both when it comes to infrastructure and the energy structure. And of course, we welcome that, and we look forward to being an active participant in that. In our service business, it's a growing business, and of course, we're pleased with that. So if we look on the left hand side here, again, it's the perspective.
In 2016, we had at revenue of €1,300,000,000 Now it's more than €2,000,000,000 And what's even more important is that our Margin has gone from 17% to 27%. We need more investment in our service business so that it's easier to be a customer in our service business. So having your assets there, but also working digitally. And we're investing in that in 2021 2022. So far more than 10,000 colleagues In the service business, we will need to make it easier for them to do their job and look after our customers there.
That will be very interesting. And again, to put it in perspective, we passed 100 gigawatts this year, and we ended up at 117 gigawatts, both the Onshore and Offshore. So this works, and it also works vis a vis our competitors. It's also nice to see that our order intake on service now has a duration of more than 9 years, Which means it's a predictable business. And of course, it's a business we need to continue to invest in.
And we look at assets in more than 70 countries look after Now there are annual report. You have seen the numbers in different formats, I'm sure. I just want to emphasize that we had a net profit the of EUR 771,000,000,000 in 2020. We are following the normal dividends policy here, and that's also why we have a dividend of to you as the shareholders of DKK 8.45. It's about €1.14 per share, and it's our way of thanking you For your great commitment and faith in us that you have shown as shareholders throughout the year.
And we also still have a strong capital structure. That capital structure It was also clear when we got a rating in the beginning of 2021 of Baa1 with Moody's. And we will need to continue to use that to show our customers and the areas we work in that we can be a strong the Both financially and technologically for renewables in the years to come. And the projects We work on have a duration of 1 to 5 to 7 years. So our financial strength is very important when it So the rating was certainly welcome by us, and we will be using it very much with our clients looking at the future.
I'd like to spend a bit of time talking about what to expect in the future, where are we today, where are we coming from, the Where are we heading and how far have we come so far? So what has happened with renewables and wind in recent years? In 2000, the full capital in wind was about 12 gigawatts. And in 2010, it at 185 gigawatts and now we're up at 701 gigawatts. What's interesting here is That that increasing capacity over 10 years was 70% of the total capacity.
So as an industry today, We are building a different capacity, a larger scale capacity to help our clients and help the climate across the globe So that they can also prioritize renewables. But the most important thing in this slide is the graph on the right, which is the cost of wind energy. And it's essential that over the past 10 years, we have seen a drop In price for the electricity we produce, it's a drop of about 2 thirds. So wind and solar power is now at a level which is competitive And better and more optimal than all other power types, energy types. So when you select new energy sources.
Now you typically select 2 of the renewables, and that has to do with both technology and innovation, and we're pleased with that. And that also means the Most people have stopped talking about developing new coal fired or gas fired power plants or nuclear power plants. So we've come some way, but the best is probably still to come because if we look at global energy generation in 2019, Wind is still only at 1% for Energy, when it comes to electricity, it's 70% it's 7% globally. So there are still 93% for us the to strive for. We're happy to share it with solar power, but there's certainly a lot to do.
That's actually one of the reasons we would like to welcome you here at headquarters because we would have been able to show you how we can charge things, the charging for both batteries and vehicles because it's an important part to also reduce our CO2 footprint. So if you need a service car today or company car, investors, it has to be either a hybrid or a fully electric car. And of course, you can see that because we have the charging stations here, and we'll see it at our other plants in the future. So that transition we see every day for heating, cooling, transport the And as you can see as the second point here, many the Our power plants are going from coal and gas to electric and thus renewable energy. And that's, of course, extremely important for the world.
The third one here is one I'm sure you've heard about several times because the It's PTX, as we say it, or P2X, where we use Renewable Energy to also look at how to use hydrogen in our future electrification of many of our things like storage but also industrial processes. In Denmark, we already have many examples of this and even more in all of Europe. And in the rest of the world, it grows week on week. We will participate in that. But the most important thing for that whole development Is that you need strong technology from renewables, primarily solar and wind power, and we look forward to welcoming that.
And we are I'm so pleased we have the engineers who are also taking part in those solutions from us. But of course, then you also have to say that we need sustainability in everything we do. It matters Because from the beginning, we have a wind turbine, and that's about CO2 neutral after 4 months operation. But it would be great if it was neutral from day 1. We are not at there today, but we will be working very hard on that going towards 2,030.
We will be working on it, and it's 3 great building blocks: our own production, our transport methods And the way we handle all our facilities in the world, plants, etcetera, how do we heat things and How do we use our facilities? In 2020, we did a good job there with our reduction, but there's still a way to go. And we invite all our partners in the supply chain to take part so that together we can make this clear change and improvement. We also need to get better at circularity. We want the turbines to be recyclable 100% by 2,040.
We have said 2,040 because we don't have the technology today to recycle our blades, but we will get there. But it's also an open invitation if somebody wants to take part in this to find that technology. The company that finds that solution will definitely be a great a big corporation. So we also want to be involved. We can't do this without our employees, and we want to be the most attractive employer in the energy sector.
That's for the benefit of our 29,000 colleagues today, but that also needs to continue in 5, 10 years. It's our job to do to create the framework so that everyone can fulfill their potentials the And people can maybe work in renewables across the world, and we want to enable that. And there's the energy transition. It's probably the greatest transition to date. It's greater than digitalization Because it has to do with changing our whole energy system, you need enormous amounts in the next few decades.
And we are happy about that because we will be one of the companies at the center of this energy transition. Looking into the details, let me mention our excellent report here, which goes into detail with the individual colleagues involved to improve our sustainability footprint over 2020. The So do take the time to read that report. And I just want to mention some of these highlights. The carbon footprint has dropped by a third.
So we've gotten better at this in 2020, but we are not home safe yet, And we do have until 2,030. And of course, the first steps are often the easiest. It's the low hanging fruits. So we will need to work harder going to 2,030. Our journey forward has also been approved.
How do we see our own base targets? That's also very much something that motivates us. One of the statistics I'm the happiest about is that in spite of having so much to do and so much growth in capacity, We have still been able to reduce our injury rate, but even one Injury is one too many, so this is not something we will be satisfied with. We will continue to work the to ensure 0 injuries, but it takes a major effort. And again, we are looking after each other.
We Have been looking out for each other, but we can even make improvements. Diversity the It's something we'll continue to discuss. And for Vestas, it means we want diversity. We are present at 83 countries. The the And that doesn't come of its own accord.
It has to do with the first recruitment. Maybe you join as a graduate the And until you finish some job later on after many promotions. We want the best team in each country, in each business sector, and we will continue to spend resources on ensuring that. And I'm sure we'll create a lot of Satisfaction in that. There's also corporate responsibility, which includes an ethics line, Including a whistleblower scheme, and we are happy that we have many examples.
Some of the things have just dealt with a question. But as you can also see in our annual report, we talk about the reports we get, Both the ones that became a full report and the other ones because we find it important In having such a large company that people have the courage and the freedom to speak up, ask questions, let us get rid of problematic issues, and we do that by asking questions and making reports. This is no surprise. We have 3 business sectors: Onshore Service and Offshore. And offshore is an important business sector for us.
We have made a major investment in 2020, And you can see here why. Onshore wind will continue to grow in the Many countries, service will continue to grow both in our Vestas fleet now but also in competing brands And last but not least, of the offshore wind we hear so much about, it's about It was about 5 to 6 gigawatts in 2020. And going to 2,030, I think we can agree that just what happened And the past few years means that the offshore market can easily be 30 gigawatts a year. So that's at double by 5 or 6 in the next decade. We need to be present there the as a market leader and partner for clients who want this and countries who want to prioritize offshore.
And let me say a bit more about Offshore straight away. We started by welcoming a great deal of new colleagues. We have announced our new organization. People thought it happened very quickly, but I just want to say it's a business that is an ongoing business, which the It now merges with the Vestas family. It's a business that had a revenue of more than €10,000,000,000 and more than 10,000 colleagues.
Of course, it creates a bit of turbulence when you make a merger like that, But we would like to reduce the turbulence as much as possible. We're working hard to do that, and that's also why we wanted the to be in place by February 1, but we will spend the rest of the year to get the teams to settle in, but also ensuring that systems, etcetera, completely function as one. It takes time, but we are sure that we will be achieving everything we want there. And I want to welcome the new colleagues and also the current Vestas colleagues who I'm welcoming their new colleagues. I want to welcome everyone there.
Especially in operations and in technology, we have Gone live. And in technology, we need to be ready. And you also saw the result on February 10th when we announced Our new offshore wind turbine will be B236, a 15 Megawatts turbine. And now we are talking to our clients around the world how that turbine can be used And should be used in the great acquisition rounds that are current. We go from 1 turbine where the strongest was V170 to V236.
236. That means that the turbine is 84% larger, and that's the Impressive. And also in some of these areas, it's just on the limits of the natural laws, but we are thrilled to be at that point. And we also need this business to meet our global customer. So it is an upscaling of our offshore integration.
That, of course, brings me to our long term financial ambitions. And in many ways, things are unchanged here. We are very much committed to our 3 business sectors, Onshore service and offshore. All of it is interesting, And we will be combining these parts, and we'll be growing in all three sectors. And here, we also have an indication that the the service margins will be about 25% in coming years.
And combined with the rest of it, We will be a market leader, and our revenue will grow more than that, more than the average market. We will have a free cash flow every year, Which is very important for us. Even though we use the cash flow every year, we still need free cash flow because that's what we need for our shareholders, but the We also needed to reinvest in the business. We will also have a return on invested capital of at least 20%. We didn't get to 20% in 2020, and that also means it's a strong driver for us to reach that target.
But it's also a signal that we want a strong balance, And we want to have the strongest margin in the industry, which is a minimum of 10%. There's still some way to go, the But also having built through the scaling of capacity and with tariffs and so on, I think All of us would like to see a year, the end of 2021 or 2022, where we don't see changing rules of the game all of the time because many of the tools we need to get to 10% are something we have internally investors. Looking at the outlook for 2021, we expect revenue of €16,000,000,000 to €17,000,000,000 services will grow with about 15% with our offshore service sector joining. And the EBIT margin, we are saying 6% to 8%. And for the whole service sector, both onshore and offshore, we expect it the 24%.
Total investments will be around €1,000,000,000 which is, of course, higher Because we will be investing more in our offshore activities and also need to look at localizations because these turbines need the machines need to be closer to Where the turbines will be set up. We are now in a situation where COVID Still exists. So of course, there's a risk element in 2021 like we saw it in 2020. But it's worth mentioning, of course, that there's still that dark course. With that, I want to thank you all for your support in 2020, and especially a thank you to our colleagues and partners Around the world.
Thank you for your great commitment throughout 2020.
And with that, I pass the floor to Claus. Thank you very much. We have now heard a presentation of the activities of the company during the past year and the annual report. Now at an ordinary annual general meeting with physical attendance, you would be able to take the floor now. In this virtual setup, it's a matter of looking at what we have received.
And we have received one contribution from the Association of Danish shareholders by Mr. Sven Svensson, who has been a guest at our AGMs for many years. I will read his contribution out Loud and give our Chairman and CEO a chance to answer his questions. He writes, I represent the Association of Danish Shareholders working in the interest of private shareholders. Many of our members are shareholders and investors, as am I.
First of all, thank you to the Chairman and the CEO for a good report, another solid, however not extraordinary annual report. There's a lot of things to say about the annual report. 1st and foremost, it's a scoop having acquired all of MHI Vestas because Offshore Wind will see rapid growth in the future, and Mitsubishi has not contributed much besides capital. They have not helped to secure many orders in Japan, which was otherwise the idea. Add to that, Vestas has developed its 15 megawatt turbine, and you get a very strong picture.
The acquisition of CIP is another progressive move because they the Good at launching projects. Normally, it can be dangerous to acquire your customer in consideration of your other customers. But I suppose Vestas has the Evaluated that this was possible, and we haven't seen much criticism in the media either. And Vestas has a strong base for its new 15 Megawatt turbine. We have seen a good revenue growth from €12,000,000,000 to €15,000,000,000 EBIT, on the other hand, has decreased €1,000,000,000 to €750,000,000 that is not a good development and it seems that costs are not under control.
That can be due to 3 things. First of all, we are informed that a lot of this is due to warranty provisions. That raises the question of quality. Are there any quality issues With regard to the blades, that was one concrete question. The second question is, it could also be due to lower prices On the finished turbines, do we see a price pressure again?
And thirdly, are there any Is this due to extraordinary costs in connection with COVID, which will not be repeated to the same extent this year? And fourthly, financing costs. We believe that we can see a euro loan with quite high interest. Are we mistaken? Or could you pay this out with the large cash balance that you have.
We also note that debt is down by €2,500,000,000 All the while, equity has increased 1,300,000,000 the That is a remarkable improvement of the balance sheet and an improved solvency ratio. We would like to hear your comments on these five issues. And with great satisfaction, we note that you're going to pay out a dividend of DKK 8.45. That shows your confidence in the future. Last year, Torben Rasmussen gave the report, so I didn't have the chance to thank Anders Hornewell myself.
I and the other shareholders have been very pleased with Anders Groene Welt. Here Bert Norberg brought in an engineer with a good understanding of operations. And as Groene Welt said, I don't promise much, but I keep my promises. And you did. Together, you have worked with the processes internally, and you have created the A well run machine today constituting a world leading wind turbine producer.
One of our focus areas is succession. Can management tell us how you ensure retention and development of new candidates for management? About a year ago, Anders Groeneveld decided to leave Executive Management and join the Board of Directors. And Henrik Andersson left the board to take up the post as CEO. So you switched roles.
Normally, that is not in accordance with good corporate governance, but we have seen that with great success in several Danish companies such the LEGO, Daymond, Coloplast and others. And it was obvious that you could use Groene Welt's great knowledge about Vestas on the board. We would like to see him as Chairman of the Board, but not necessarily anytime soon as we see Bert Nordberg as the best Chairman of a Board in Denmark. Another of our focus areas is good guidance in new and uncertain times. We have noted that the target is an EBIT margin of 10% and that you expect Revenue of €16,000,000,000 to €17,000,000,000 this year and an improved EBIT margin of 6% to 8%.
That would give you an EBIT of Towards NOK 9,000,000,000. Now we are 1 quarter into the current year. Could you elaborate on your expectations? Thank you for the floor. And with that contribution from the Association of Danish Shareholders, I will give the floor to the CEO and after that to the Chairman of the Board to answer any questions and give their comments.
Thank you very much, Claus, and also thank you to CERN for these remarks and questions. Let me, 1st of all, touch upon Japan. I think it's very important because In the end of November, we were in Japan discussing the journey in front of us in Japan, Particularly when it comes to offshore. And that's interesting because that starts right now, and we are looking forward to participating that. And I think we should recognize MHI more than that.
And this is a market that we are getting into via our Japanese setup and we are going to do that in a collaboration and we have gained a very strong partner here. You talk about our earnings, our EBIT margin, and rightly so, because I can tell you, 1st and foremost, that quality is one of our number one priorities in Vestas. And we acknowledge that there have been a number of expected problems and issues during the course of 2020, which has resulted in a level Repairs and Upgradings that we haven't seen before. On the other hand, we have, throughout the past 40 years, the seen with our great experience within this area that we are going to remain technology leaders in this industry. And therefore, we feel comfortable the That we can guarantee the quality of our products today as well as in the future.
But 2020 has given us some important lessons, and we are going to work on this, and every single employee, investors Knows that today. Let me also say that when you see such strong revenue growth and Capacity growth of about 50% during the course of just 2 years, that does constitute a challenge. And it does constitute a challenge all the while most of the world is in lockdown because we have seen challenges every single day throughout the past year, and some of them have incurred costs for us. And We have solved these issues for our clients. And you mentioned whether this has been due to lower prices.
And I must say, we have seeing a very reasonable stabilization during the course of the past years, and we expect that to continue. Profitability is and must be one of our highest priorities, and it should be for all players in this industry. And it should be because we have to continue to invest in technology and contribute to scaling up global capacity and nobody can do that without earning a profit. And therefore, it's important that we have a competitive technology that we can supplier customers with and that our clients want to use to build their next project. And as an industry leader, we must be able to drive this transition and this ongoing transition across the globe, and we can only do that with the right EBIT and the right profitability.
Looking at the COVID crisis, you're absolutely right. COVID is not a big help for us In an industry where we have to source our components from different parts of the world and from different suppliers and partners, and that has Definitely been a challenge for our suppliers, but our deliveries to the clients have succeeded. And I think the perspective will be more or less the same for the current year, but it's no excuse. And we said from day 1 that we are not going to use COVID as an excuse because now is the time to prove that wind energy can the Stand the distance. And there were some industries looking at us to see if we had to back out and step down from some of our promises, And we didn't.
And I really thank our employees. I thank our suppliers because We were able to deliver on our promises, but it has incurred some costs in some of these areas. You also talk about financing costs and our capital structure, and I can tell you that we constantly evaluate our capital structure. That is one of our priorities, and it has been ever since we had these difficult years in 20122013. And ever since, we have been acutely aware that we need a conservative approach to our capital structure looking forward.
That has also contributed to our gaining the rating that we have gained. We also paid MHI in our own investors' Shares with the 50% in MHI Vestas Offshore. And that was the right thing to do. And that meant we were able to welcome MHI and that gave us a stronger balance sheet at the end of the year than in the beginning of the year, also after the acquisition of our offshore activities. And therefore, we continue to have a strong balance sheet.
We have a cash balance Of almost €2,000,000,000 And that means that we can continue to invest at a level that means that we can Stay a leader of this technology, and we can continue to help our clients also in more challenging areas where There are fewer suppliers who are willing to deliver these solutions that our clients need. So I can tell you that we are very happy that we have now welcomed back our offshore business and that will continue to be part of our strong but also very conservative approach to our balance sheet. When it comes to the, what you call the best Chairman of a Board in Denmark. I think I will pass the floor to the man himself, Bert Nordberg.
I will comment on some other things. Thank you, Soren, and thank you Danske Aktionas Freining for a comment on your question. I would like to comment a little bit about the talent and leadership and development of future leaders in the company. We have a strategic initiative that we call talent and leadership and part of that is, of course, to develop the employee value proposition. Why Vestas?
Why should we work here? And our focus has been very much on Denmark before and now we will take that globally to trying to identify and attract the best talent in the world to work for our company. And we also put the pressure on all the leaders in the company to identifier of future leaders to ensure that we have a pipeline of leaders coming up and are developed with focused on diversity, of course. On top of that, we have continued to have a yearly an ongoing succession planning for leadership position in companies. So we develop and make sure that we have at the pipeline of new leaders coming up and being developing the company.
So I think we are doing what we can to ensure that the company will have the leadership the that it needs for the future. The company has become much bigger. We have more or less grown 50% in 2.5, 3 years. And I think that also put a lot of pressure on the leaders in the organization. So There will be a mix of external and internal development of the leaders in the company.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Those were the contribution we had received. And if anyone Wishes to take the floor. I can conclude that we have exhausted the debate on the report. That was the first item on the agenda and item 2 on the agenda, the presentation and approval of the annual report.
I can conclude that the annual report has been Approved. That leads me to the next item on the agenda. And as I have not Received any objections or questions, I can simply go through the remainder of the agenda and refer to the presentation of the agenda carried out by the Chairman of the Board. When it comes the To item 3 on the agenda, the Board of Directors proposes that a dividend of DKK 8.45 per share be paid out the For 2020, I conclude that is adopted. Item 4 is the presentation and advisory vote on the remuneration report.
That is a new requirement that you should not only have a remuneration report, but you should also That you should, in the remuneration report, clarify how the remuneration policy has been implemented in the past year, and I can also conclude that the remuneration report has been adopted. Item 5 is the remuneration of the Board of Directors. It was said that the Board of Directors proposes an increase of 5%, A basic remuneration of DKK 446,250 Per Board Member, with the Chairman receiving 3 times the basic fee and the Deputy Chairman receiving 2 times the basic And I conclude that this proposal is also adopted. Item 6 is election of members to the Board of Directors. And the articles of Association Article 8 says that the Board of Directors should consist of 5 to 10 members the Elected by the general meeting.
Add to that the members elected by the employees. The Board of Directors Proposes reelection of Anna Schoneveld, Bert Norberg, Bruce Grant, Eva Mere de Sufendi Berneke, Helle Toonig Smit, Karl Henrich Sonstrom and Karl Josefsson. That was 7 candidates. And Carsten Biel has announced that he does not stand for reelection. Instead, the board proposes that Kentaro Hosomi be elected a new member.
We have not received any other candidacies. And when it comes to other executive functions of these candidates, I refer to Appendix at Respectively. Good luck to all of you. Item 7 is appointment of auditor. The Board of Directors proposes reappointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
And as it is appropriate in accordance with applicable law, I can inform you That this is pursuant to the Audit Committee's recommendation and that the Audit Committee has not been influenced by 3rd parties nor been subjected to any contractual obligation restricting the general meeting's choice to certain auditors or audit companies. Further information about the proposed auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers has been elected the new auditor. That leads me to item 8. It looks simple, but in fact, this includes 7 proposals. The first of them the Being 81 regarding the remuneration policy, this was presented by the Chairman of the Board.
The policy has been updated by the Board of Directors when it comes to the variable remuneration with the goal of simplifying the long term incentive Programs. This has already been presented, and it has been described in detail in the convening notice. I will, therefore, will not go into further detail, but simply conclude that this proposal has been adopted. That leads me to item A2, the A change of the denomination per share. This requires a majority of twothree, and the proposal is the That the denomination per share be changed from DKK 1 to DKK 0.01 or multiples thereof.
The The purpose of the proposal is to make it possible for the Board of Directors to undertake a share split To split each share into 2, 3, 4, 5 individual shares, which makes the share more the Easily tradable at the stock exchange. That is also adopted. The next item is a renewal and amendment of the authorizations to increase the share capital. Here, the board proposes that the authorizations to increase the capital the share capital by a total of 10% during the next 5 years. This is a nominal amount of 20,197,345,000.
This is pretty standard proposals. So I have no further comments, and I conclude that this has been adopted by a 2 thirds majority. That leads me to item 8.4, an authorization to the Board of Directors to hold general meetings electronically. And the experience with COVID-nineteen has taught us that it is not always easy to have physical attendance, And therefore, the board asks for authorization to hold general meetings electronically, And that means that shareholders would be able to send in comments and questions the beforehand, but also vote and take the floor virtually during the actual Annual General Meeting. But The Board of Directors also informs me that they intend to hold physical meetings whenever possible.
This has also been concluded By the sufficient majority, and it leads to a number of changes to the articles of association. 85 the This is a proposal to the Adopt a new article in the articles of association, and that means that a number of articles the adopted by a 2 thirds majority. 86 is an authorization to the Board of Directors to distribute extraordinary dividends so you don't have to wait the to the ordinary annual general meeting, but you are able to distribute dividend at a different time. That only It's an authorization to give the board some measure of flexibility. There are no concrete plans So far, but I have not received any objections, and I can conclude that, that has been adopted.
87 is the renewal of the authorization to Why are treasury shares? Almost all listed companies in Denmark ask for an authorization to acquire up to 10% of their Treasury Shares. This is a standard item on the agenda, an authorization that can be given for a period of 5 years, and this is For just 1.5 years, this is up to 10%, and The share price cannot deviate from the price quoted on NASDAQ by more than 10%. Finally, Item 9 is an authorization of the Chairman of the General Meeting. That is an authorization for me.
It's not with March. It's just for me To be able to register and file the adopted resolutions with the Danish Business Authority. And I thank you as I can conclude That this authorization has been granted to me. Item 10 is any other business. You can take the floor, but we don't have many shareholders present, so I only have left to resign as Chairman of the Annual General Meeting and pass the floor back
Yes. This concludes our Annual General Meeting for 2021. I sincerely hope that we all can work together to ensure that we next year can have it in a meeting in in a more nice environment and meet together in person. So stay tuned. I look forward to going to work another year with a U.
S. Shareholder, and I hope that we can fulfill our vision for the future. Thank you very much.