Energy

World's new largest wind turbine sweeps 10 football fields per spin

World's new largest wind turbine sweeps 10 football fields per spin
A rendering of the CSSC Haizhuang H260-18MW, the world's largest wind turbine, which is currently under construction in China
A rendering of the CSSC Haizhuang H260-18MW, the world's largest wind turbine, which is currently under construction in China
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A rendering of the CSSC Haizhuang H260-18MW, the world's largest wind turbine, which is currently under construction in China
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A rendering of the CSSC Haizhuang H260-18MW, the world's largest wind turbine, which is currently under construction in China
Increasing the diameter from 171 to 260 meters takes capacity from 5 MW to 18 MW
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Increasing the diameter from 171 to 260 meters takes capacity from 5 MW to 18 MW
Components of the supergiant turbine in the CSSC factory
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Components of the supergiant turbine in the CSSC factory
CSSC's manufacturing facility for these machines in the Dongying Offshore Wind Power Equipment Industrial Park is 192 meters long, 66 meters wide
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CSSC's manufacturing facility for these machines in the Dongying Offshore Wind Power Equipment Industrial Park is 192 meters long, 66 meters wide
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The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is upping the ante on offshore wind, announcing it's building the largest and most powerful wind turbine ever, making a peak 18 megawatts with an enormous 260-meter (853-ft) diameter on its three-bladed rotor.

It makes sense for a shipbuilding enterprise to get involved with this project; the blades of much smaller turbines are already a huge pain to transport, so building them right next to a dock in a facility designed for making, handling and launching enormous structures into the water eliminates a ton of problems as you attempt to go bigger.

Size is paramount when it comes to wind; the longer your blades, the larger the swept area and the more energy you can harvest from a single pole – and when it comes to offshore wind, the sea-bed foundations carry an outsized cost, so being able to generate more from fewer locations is a big deal.

The previous record-holder, the MingYang Smart Energy MySE 16.0-242 uses 118-m (387-ft) blades to sweep a 46,000-sq-m (495,140-sq-ft) area. CSSC Haizhuang's new H260-18MW turbine increases the blade length by 8.5%, to 128 m (420 ft), bumping up the swept area by 15.2% to 53,000 sq m (570,490 sq ft).

Increasing the diameter from 171 to 260 meters takes capacity from 5 MW to 18 MW
Increasing the diameter from 171 to 260 meters takes capacity from 5 MW to 18 MW

In the de facto standard for putting huge areas in some kind of human context, that's a jump from about 8.6 standard NFL football fields' worth of swept area to about 9.9. Under peak conditions, the H260-18MW machine will generate 44.8 kWh of energy every time it spins.

Weirdly, it promises to deliver less power at the end of the day than the smaller MingYang turbine. CSSC says the new size king of offshore wind, "can output more than 74 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year, which can meet the annual electricity consumption of 40,000 households of three," while MingYang says, "a single MySE 16.0-242 turbine can generate 80,000 MWh of electricity every year, enough to power more than 20,000 households." Those sound like some wildly different households.

Components of the supergiant turbine in the CSSC factory
Components of the supergiant turbine in the CSSC factory

CSSC says that an example 1-gigawatt capacity offshore wind farm using these 18-MW beasts would require 13% fewer units than if you'd used 16-MW turbines, and the corresponding reduction in sea bed work, cabling and whatnot would reduce the cost of the farm by "hundreds of millions of yuan," with each 100 million yuan representing about US$14.8 million at current exchange rates.

Either way, it'll be interesting to learn how they perform in the real world – and CSSC Haizhuang appears to be well into production of the first unit. Building the vast majority of the components in its own factories to avoid supply chain issues, it seems the company has already created at least one of the mammoth SuperBlade+ wings for this thing, as well as the giant generator, the gearbox, the frame, and one of the biggest bearings we've ever seen. Indeed, the main nacelle appears to be more or less assembled, and the hub to which the blades will be attached looks pretty darn close, too.

Source: CSSC Haizhuang

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7 comments
7 comments
James Barbour
18 Mega Watts is peak. Actual yield MIGHT average 9. Current cost of production via coal, natural gas or fission is $50 per meg. As such, this device can generate $450 of power per hour. It will wear out in 9 years. Total revenues therefor equal a possible $35,000,000. What was the true cost of building and 9 years of maintenance? Initial SWAG makes it a financial loser. I am a meteorologist, so the environmental benefits are a factor. Take the true cost of the project minus revenue to calculate loss. Spend the same amount of money for carbon sequestration instead and you would have doubled the environmental benefits. We should be solving problems, not simply spending money to make us feel better.
P51d007
Shame we gave up on nuclear in the USA.
jerryd
So with a 55 diameter increase is going to over double output! Sounds like someone is trying to fool us.
Nelson Hyde Chick
James Barbour, carbon sequestration does not work. Every plant that tried to impliment it has failed.
Lamar Havard
None of these articles ever mentions how much, and what grades of lubricants these monsters use, and how often they need servicing. The current batch of behemoths already in service uses around 700 gallons of oil and grease each, that has to be changed every year. And if it's not synthetic...bring on the dinosaur slime.
christopher
@James - since when is profit more important? As for "carbon sequestration" - ROFL. You need to come back from dreamland to reality - this is planet earth mate.
John
They probably are but Denmark is currently testing the largest at 280 meters.