News about switching to greener energy sources is always good news, and this certainly counts: The world's largest wind turbine constructed to date is now up and running and contributing to the power grid in China. Contact online >>
News about switching to greener energy sources is always good news, and this certainly counts: The world''s largest wind turbine constructed to date is now up and running and contributing to the power grid in China.
The MySE 16-260 earns its largest-ever tag thanks to its rotor diameter of 260 meters (853 feet) and its swept area of 53,902 square meters (580,196 square feet); it''s also the most powerful wind turbine we''ve seen so far, offering 16 megawatts of power.
Here are some more stats: The central tower stands some 152 meters (499 feet) tall, and the generator weighs 349 metric tons (385 US tons). It represents a phenomenal piece of engineering, and it should produce around 66 gigawatt-hours of energy per year. That''s enough to supply approximately 36,000 homes, according to China Three Gorges Corporation, which helped construct and install the turbine.
The MySE 16-260 was installed on a wind farm off the coast of the Fujian Province in China. That''s right in the Taiwan Strait, where wind speed regularly exceeds 51 kilometers per hour (32 miles per hour), categorized as a level 7.
That means this turbine needs to be super resilient, and even in its short time in the field, it''s already survived the stresses of Typhoon Talim, which was responsible for 230,000 people being displaced. As well as being built to last, the turbine has more than 1,000 sensors so it can adapt to weather conditions in real time.
"Most of China''s coastal areas are in typhoon zones, and if there is no wind turbine that can withstand typhoons, it can be said that wind power has little future in China," Qiying Zhang, the Chief Technology Officer at the Mingyang Smart Energy company that designed the MySE 16-260, said in a statement.
According to China Three Gorges Corporation, the MySE 16-260 will save around 19,958 metric tons (22,000 US tons) of coal and 48,987 metric tons (54,000 US tons) of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
And there are reasons to be optimistic about the future as well: 18-megawatt wind turbines are already in the pipeline from GE, which means the amount of renewable energy we can produce from wind is only going to go up and up in the years ahead.
This switch to clean energy is urgently needed. Research has shown how we can support ourselves using solar, wind, and other green energy solutions and consign power produced by fossil fuels to history.
Fossil fuels are responsible for nearly 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and the global warming and extreme temperatures that we''re seeing as a result of those emissions are already being keenly felt.
As of June 2024, the most powerful wind turbine in operation is the world''s first 18MW semi-direct drive offshore wind turbine, developed by Dongfang Electric Corporation.[1] In October 2024, Dongfang unveiled a 26 MW offshore turbine.[2]
Since the early 2000s, wind turbines have grown in size—in both height and blade lengths—and generate more energy. What''s driving this growth? Let''s take a closer look.
A wind turbine''s hub height is the distance from the ground to the middle of the turbine''s rotor. The hub height for utility-scale land-based wind turbines has increased 83% since 1998–1999, to about 103.4 meters (~339 feet) in 2023. That''s taller than the Statue of Liberty! The average hub height for offshore wind turbines in the United States is projected to grow even taller—from 100 meters (330 feet) in 2016 to about 150 meters (500 feet), or about the height of the Washington Monument, in 2035.
Turbine towers are becoming taller to capture more energy, since winds generally increase as altitudes increase. The change in wind speed with altitude is called wind shear. At higher heights above the ground, wind can flow more freely, with less friction from obstacles on the earth''s surface such as trees and other vegetation, buildings, and mountains. Most wind turbine towers taller than 100 meters tend to be concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast, two regions with higher-than-average wind shear.
A turbine''s rotor diameter, or the width of the circle swept by the rotating blades (the dotted circles in the second illustration), has also grown over the years. Back in 2013, no turbines in the United States employed rotors that were 115 meters (380 feet) in diameter or larger, while in 2023 98% of newly installed turbines featured such rotors. In 2023, the average rotor diameter of newly-installed wind turbineswasover 133.8 meters(~438 feet)—longer than a football field, or about as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Larger rotor diameters allow wind turbines to sweep more area, capture more wind, and produce more electricity. A turbine with longer blades will be able to capture more of the available wind than shorter blades—even in areas with relatively less wind. Being able to harvest more wind at lower wind speeds can increase the number of areas available for wind development nationwide. Due to this trend, rotor swept areas have grownaround 670% since 1998–1999.
In addition to getting taller and bigger, wind turbines have also increased in maximum power rating, or capacity, since the early 2000s. The average capacity of newly installed U.S. wind turbines in2023was3.4 megawatts(MW),up 5% since 2022 and 375%since 1998–1999. In2023, there wasanincrease in the proportion of turbines installed in the size category of 3.5 MW or larger. Higher capacityturbines mean that fewer turbines are needed to generatethe same amount of energyacross a wind plant—ultimately leading to lower costs.
Liz Hartman is the Communications Lead for DOE''s Wind Energy Technologies Office, and formerly (2009–2016) the Communications Lead for EERE''s combined Wind and Water Power Technologies Office.
Mingyang Smart Energy said last week that it''s installed "the world''s largest single-capacity offshore wind turbine" in a project in Hainan, China. The turbine delivers a power output of up to 20 MW, besting its previous 18 MW model from 2023.
According to Mingyang, the MySE18.X-20MW turbine is designed to be lightweight, modular, and highly reliable. With its massive wind rotor diameter of 260-292 m (853-958 ft), it has a maximum wind sweeping area of 66,966 sq m – that''s more than 12 NFL football fields.
The company has a history of building the largest turbines our oceans have ever seen, and notes that with an annual average wind speed of 8.5m/s, its new turbine can generate 80 million kWh of electricity; that''s said to be enough to power housing for 96,000 residents annually.
A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency published last August noted that the global weighted-average LCoE of offshore wind went from being more than twice as expensive as the cheapest fossil fuel alternative in 2010 to just 17% more expensive in 2022. During that period, the cost fell from $0.197/kWh to $0.081/kWh.
That report also illustrates how the localized cost of electricity (LCoE) from offshore wind is still high compared to other renewable energy sources like solar, hydropower, and geothermal. So there''s indeed a lot more to be done before offshore wind becomes more widely favored around the globe.
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