There is a race to produce the most powerful offshore wind turbines in the world. The buildout and installation of offshore wind turbines is happening, with records being broken at a continuous and quickening pace.
The wingspans of the most powerful offshore wind turbines now extend past 252 meters (276 yards), and it's just a matter of time (months) before a wind turbine manufacturer will announce a wind turbine with rotor blades with a 300 yard span, the length of three football fields.
There are other factors involved including how high of a foundation the turbines are built on and where the wind turbines will be located, but overall, longer rotor blades capture more wind power and generate more electricity.
Offshore wind turbines are inedible. They showcase some of the most amazing engineering innovations happening in the world.. The wind turbines can be set in the ocean floor, where the wind is gusting, and space is plentiful.
"The ability of offshore wind turbines to generate massive amounts of power is one the great triumphs of modern engineering"
The offshore wind industry is going through a fascinating period of innovation, with turbine manufacturers racing to announce record-breaking wind turbines that generate more power and have longer rotor blades than prior models.
Here are some recently announced turbine products touted for their revolutionary electrical power-generating capabilities.
Goldwind 252 Meter Rotor Diameter Wind Turbine: The largest Announced Project AS of OctobeR, 2022
Announced in October 2022
Sweep area of 50,000 square meters (about the size of 10 football fields)
146 meters in height (height of a 50 story skyscraper)
Forecasted to produce 63,500 MWh of electricity per year (enough energy for 36,000 Chinese homes)
Peak capacity of 16 Megawatts
CSSC HaizhuanG 260 Meter Rotor Diameter Turbine: The World's Largest Announced Offshore Turbine As Of January 2023
Sweep area of 53,000 Square Meters
Forecasted to produce 74,000 MWh of electricity per year (enough energy for 40,000 Chinese homes)
Peak capacity of 18 Megawatts
Operational in Denmark (on land based test site) as of December 2022.
Sweep area of 43,743 Square Meters
280 meters in height
Forecasted to produce 80,000 MWh of electricity per year (enough energy for 20,000 European Homes)
Peak capacity of 15 Megawatts
Vestas has created some cool videos showing all the detail involved in building, transporting and testing the turbines.
GE Haliade-X 14.7 MW Turbine: The Most Powerful Wind Turbine To Obtain Industry Certification
In December, 2022 became the most powerful turbine to obtain industry certification
Forecast to produce 76,000 MWh of electricity per year
Peak capacity of 14.7 megawatts
The Dogger Bank Wind Farrm, which will be the largest in the world upon completion in 2026 will include 87 GE-Haliade-X Turbines
Siemens Gamesa Turbine broke the record for most power produced by a single turbine in one day.
Results announced in October 2022
Prototype set record by producing 359 megawatt-hours within a 24-hours
Based upon the rapid rate of advancement, expect that during 2023, one of the manufacturers will reveal a new offshore turbine with a rotor diameter of 274 meters, which equals 300 yards, the length of three full football fields.
The biggest challenges to continually increasing rotor diameters and turbine heights will eventually become more of logistical challenge since their size will make them hard to transport on land or sea.
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