At 260 metres, this wind turbine will be twice as tall as Statue of Liberty, Big Ben
General Electric plans to invest more than $400 million over the next three to five years to develop the world’s biggest offshore wind turbine, whose 107-metre blades will be larger than a football field.
With interest and investment in renewable energy rising rapidly in recent years, General Electric plans to invest more than $400 million over the next three to five years to develop the world’s biggest offshore wind turbine, whose 107-metre blades will be larger than a football field. To be developed in France, the Haliade-X turbine is estimated to produce enough power for up to 16,000 European households. The first power generating unit is set to be completed for demonstration by 2019 and will be shipped in 2021.
GE said the new turbine – which will have a direct-drive power generator rather than a gearbox – will be 30 per cent bigger than its nearest competitors. At 260 metres (measured from base to blade tip), the Haliade-X turbine will be over twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty (93 metres) and Big Ben (96 metres). It will have 220-metre diameter rotors and a capacity of 12 megawatts. According to the World Economic Forum, the current largest turbine, developed as part of a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Vestas, has a rotor diameter of 164 metres and a 9.5-megawatt generator.
GE, already a major global player in onshore wind, entered the offshore wind turbine market through its takeover of France’s Alstom in 2015. However, the downside of creating such a huge wind turbine is the support structure required to keep the rotor up in the wind. GE Renewable Energy general manager Vincent Schellings said the team planned to tackle the issue using algorithms to process data from the turbine and offset the high forces the wind produces. “We use software to control the pitch of the turbine and keep it in the wind. It helps us keep the size and the weight of the support structure under control,” Schellings said.
GE also claimed each turbine would produce 45 per cent more energy than any other offshore wind turbine and the size of each would allow operators to build wind farms with fewer turbines, lay fewer cables, and reduce construction, maintenance and other capital costs.
The development comes at a time when there is a boom in renewable energy investments. Between 2004 and 2015 investment increased by more than six times to $286 billion. Renewables also attracted more than double the $130 billion committed to new coal and gas generation in 2015, according to WEF.
Source: indianexpress
