World's Most Powerful Turbine Could Power 2,000 Houses
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The world's most powerful turbine would stand 443 feet above the water and feature 66-foot-long blades.
CREDIT: Vestas |
The world's most powerful wind turbines are getting their parts tested in 2013, the wind energy company Vestas announced. Each turbine is able to generate 8 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 2,000 homes, IEEE Spectrum reported.
The turbines, which are designed to work offshore of ocean coastlines, will be gigantic. They'll stand 443 feet (135 meters) above the surface of the ocean and each of their blades will be 66 feet (80 meters) long. In the future, a farm of these structures could generate enormous amounts of energy.
The Denmark-based Vestas plans to produce a blade for the new turbine this year. It wants to test the blade, as well as a drivetrain motor, in 2013. The company plans to install a complete prototype in Oesterild, Denmark, in 2014.
No other wind turbine compares in capacity to the Vestas design, Spectrum reported. Other companies, such as Sinovel and GE, are developing offshore wind turbines that generate about 6 megawatts of electricity.
Offshore wind farms are slowly spreading around the world. There are already more than 1,500 turbines installed offshore of European coasts, according to the industry group European Wind Energy Association. Together, the turbines are capable of producing 4,336 megawatts of electricity. There are not yet any turbines in U.S. waters, but a Rhode Island company, Deepwater Wind, hopes to become the first by installing five machines offshore of its home state in 2014, Reuters reported.
Sources: IEEE Spectrum, Vestas, European Wind Energy Association, Reuters
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