When it comes to wind energy, China has long been hailed as a pioneer. Earlier this year, it was announced that the country has started building a wind farm with what were then touted as the largest turbines ever seen, each with a capacity of 16 megawatts. With the successful start-up of a turbine with a rotor diameter more than twice the length of a football field, a new milestone has been accomplished.
On July 19, China Three Gorges Corporation stated that the 16-megawatt MySE 16-260 turbine had been deployed successfully in the company’s offshore wind farm near Fujian Province. The behemoth stands 152 meters (500 feet) tall, with each blade measuring 123 meters (403 feet) and weighing 54 tons. This indicates that the sweep of the rotating blades spans an area of 50,000 square meters (about 540,000 square feet).
This is the first time a huge turbine has been connected to a commercial grid.
According to the firm, only one of these turbines should be able to generate enough electricity to power 36,000 three-person houses for a year. They believe that wind-powered home electricity could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 54,000 tons when compared to coal-fired power plants, highlighting the remarkable green credentials of this technology.
Fuijian offshore wind farm is located in the Taiwan Strait. Winds of force 7 on the Beaufort scale, designated as “near gales,” are common in these dangerous waters, making them ideal for generating wind power – provided, of course, that your turbines can resist the weather. Mingyang Smart Energy, the company that built the MySE 16-260, was already sure that their machine was up to the task, writing on LinkedIn that it could withstand “extreme wind speeds of 79.8 [meters per second].”
Still, it wasn’t long before these assertions were put to the test, in the aftermath of Typhoon Talim, which devastated East Asia earlier this month. Typhoons are a constant menace in this region, yet the new mega-turbine weathered the attack.
China Three Gorges Corporation, buoyed by the success of this installation, is already looking ahead. “In the next step, the 16 [megawatt] unit will be applied in batches in the second phase of the Zhangpu Liuao Offshore Wind Farm Project constructed by China Three Gorges Corporation,” said Lei Zengjuan, executive director of Three Gorges Group Fujian Company.
While China has been at the forefront of developing larger and more powerful turbines, other countries are hot on its tail. Vineyard Wind 1, a major offshore development in the United States, is now under construction and will use 13-megawatt GE Haliade-X turbines. Denmark unveiled a project in 2021 to construct a specialized artificial island of wind turbines off its coast.
In a world where a shift away from fossil fuels is more vital than ever, any advancements in renewable energy must undoubtedly be welcomed.
