Environment

Massive wind turbine takes energy generation record

The world's largest wind turbine from Danish company MHI Vestas Offshore Wind sets 9MW energy generation record
The world's largest wind turbine from Danish company MHI Vestas Offshore Wind sets 9MW energy generation record

A behemoth V164 offshore wind turbine from Danish company MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has produced almost 216,000 kWh over a 24-hour period during tests at its site near Østerild, Denmark in December. In doing so, the 9 MW prototype – a reworked version of the V164-8.0 MW, which was initially developed in 2012 and launched two years later – takes the energy generation record for a commercially available offshore wind turbine.

Since its launch in 2014, the Usain Bolt of wind turbines is essentially in competition with itself, largely due to its superior size over the competition. The V164 stands at 722 feet (220 m) at full height, with 38-ton blades that are 263 feet (80 m) in length for a total sweep area of 227,377 square feet (21,124 square meters) – larger than the giant London Eye Ferris wheel.

The larger the size, the greater the efficiency tends to be, meaning a reduction in installation and maintenance costs per kilowatts produced, or more bang for the buck. The V164 is also built to withstand harsh North Sea conditions, while 80 percent of the turbine is able to be recycled at the end of its 25-year operational life. It's designed for optimal wind speeds of 12-25 meters/second (27-56 mph), with a minimum or cut-in wind speed of 4 m/s (9 mph).

"We are confident that the 9 MW machine has now proven that it is ready for the market and we believe that our wind turbine will play an integral part in enabling the offshore industry to continue to drive down the cost of energy," said Torben Hvid Larsen, company CTO. The energy generation record set on December 1 by the prototype now stands at 215,999.1 kWh produced over a 24-hour period.

Innovations such as the V164 have helped lower the levelized energy cost (the unit cost of electricity over a turbine's life) of offshore wind power, pushing it below £100 (US$125) per megawatt-hour in the UK, four years ahead of targets set by the government.

Source: MHI Vestas Offshore Wind

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10 comments
CzechsterMarek
The answer my friends is blowing in the wind.
Daishi
With wind power scale is everything. US $125/MWh is great for offshore wind. Some of the published data I saw had it around $196 on average for 2015. It's still a pretty expensive source of electricity but it's nice to see solid progress. At the end of the day the difference in cost of coal at $100/MWh or off shore wind at $125/MWh doesn't matter much because it works out to only like 2.5 cents/KWh.
DouglasArendt
What does a 9MW wind turbine have in common with Usain Bolt? Usain is capable of great speed over a short period of time. Wind generators move relatively slowly over long periods. Strange metaphor!
Jacob Shepley
Douglas, I get your comment. But the tip of the wind turbine's blades actually do move incredibly quickly
watersworm
First, Burj al arab remains the "winner" (more than 800meters high Secondly, one blade = 38 tons !!! Let's pray for very very strong (Usain) bolts. Then, 125$ per MWh, OK champion... for offshore wind turbines, just remind me of the annual % of producing electricity, even in the "windy" North Sea : 20, maybe 25%, no more (not enough or too much wind) Finally i did not make the maths, but 80m blades moving "quickly" means a possible sound speed at the extremity of the blades with the diastrous consequences !
Brian Templeton
In time to come, I believe that the technology will be developed, especially for "Off-Shore" wind generators to possibly reach 25MW output, putting to use the wind energy that exists even higher above the sea level then the present designs do. And this new technology would be of much use on the ground as well, catching the wind energy from higher locations. This would not rule out catching solar energy from the same sites as well, particularly if the site was unusable for any other use like being on rocky ground, or high up in the hills, or mountain top or sides.
habakak
@watersworn...you are misguided. What does a wind turbine height have to do with the height of a building in Saudi Arabia? Obviously the bolts are strong enough if the turbine is still standing. It's a non-issue. Just because you think 38 ton blades are heavy does not mean the bolts won't hold. I guess you have a hard time imagining 1000 ton ships floating?
What are the disastrous consequences on the blade tips moving fast? The thing is standing, working and breaking records. Get a hold of yourself.
The only point you really have is about the capacity factors. Yes, wind turbines (varies by location but between low 20's and upper 40's) have lower capacity factors than coal plants (in the US they run at about 55%). But coal plants are a much older and widely used technology that has matured a lot more. And it has other environmental costs that we are not accounting for. Not to mention wind power will continue to get cheaper and always operate at zero marginal cost (the fuel is free) while coal power will rise over time due to the rise in cost of coal (or at least there is a lot more uncertainty).
In 25 years from now people will find it hard to think that people like you ever existed. You are not unlike those who resisted coal power replacing wood and whale oil in the 1800's.
JamesParenteau
More birds die. Might abandon this Axial design for a less velocity based Radial design. Radial will accompany with a velocity less than the air velocity, but with greater torque and using less surface area as you can make them very tall conical radial turbines.
Why nobody thought of this is beyond me.
JimFox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_axis_wind_turbine Several things appear beyond you, James- 1. The ability to Google 2. The assumption that nobody has ever thought of VAWT 3. That VAWTs have some problems- that are being worked on. 4. That fewer birds will die as coal is phased out; great numbers of birds die from noxious emissions from coal plants, while research is being done to deter birds from flying near turbines.
JimFox
watersworm--
1. Learn to Google 2. try not to make comments that are irrelevant 3. Read what 'habakak said.
http://eco-globe.com/wind-turbine-design-basics/