If you were to see it in person, you would surely be amazed by the size of this wind turbine.
A new offshore wind farm in the United States will deploy some extremely large turbines to generate electricity – in fact, it is so massive that just one rotation can power an average-sized home for two days.
These giant wind turbines are an upgraded version of the best in the world today, and they perform even better than the original version.
The offshore farm, developed by Vineyard Wind, will feature the large turbine selected, which is the GE Haliade-X, manufactured by turbine maker GE. It boasts a colossal capacity of 13 megawatts, double that of other turbines installed along the U.S. coastline to date.
The Haliade-X 13 MW is an advanced version of the successful 12 MW unit that has been operational in Rotterdam since November 2019. The Haliade-X turbine series is touted as the most powerful offshore wind turbine in the world to date, featuring a rotor diameter of 220 meters and blades that are 107 meters long, designed by LM Wind Power, along with digital control capabilities.
According to GE, just one rotation of the massive Haliade-X is enough to provide power for an average home in the UK for two days, surpassing the previous record also set by GE.
The Haliade-X’s capacity factor reaches 63%, which is 5-7% higher than its competitors. “Essentially, each percentage point of capacity factor is worth $7 million per 100 megawatts for our system,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen. “This is a critical moment not only for the future of our project but also for the future of the clean energy manufacturing industry.”
The new wind farm, Vineyard Wind 1, will be developed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It is planned to generate electricity for 400,000 homes as well as local businesses.
Vineyard Wind stated that construction of the farm will begin in the second half of 2021 with an investment of up to $3 billion. The company initially planned to install 84 wind turbines but later reduced that number to 62 due to some obstacles. Each turbine is expected to be spaced at least one kilometer apart.
Besides being the largest offshore wind turbine, the Haliade-X will also be the most efficient in the ocean. The giant blades, each 107 meters long, allow engineers to maximize wind power and increase the operating capacity factor of the equipment. Since the wind does not blow continuously, this factor describes the amount of electricity that the turbine can generate each year at a specific location compared to the energy it could produce if it were running at full capacity all the time.
With a height of up to 260 m, each Haliade-X turbine has a design capacity of up to 13 MW. When operating at full capacity, the Vineyard Wind 1 farm with a total of 62 turbines can generate 312 MWh of electricity per day, which is 10% more than the record of 262 MWh held by a prototype wind farm in the Netherlands.
The Haliade-X wind turbine is currently the largest offshore wind turbine in the world. The blades of this wind turbine are 107 meters long, longer than a football field, and may be one of the largest machine parts ever manufactured.
The Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm project is expected to help reduce over 1.6 million tons of carbon emissions annually, significantly contributing to the Commonwealth’s climate change mitigation goals.
Where does wind come from? The answer lies in the Sun. The sun heats the Earth, but due to its uneven surface and constant rotation, the Earth heats up unevenly. These temperature differences create air pressure discrepancies, causing air molecules to move from areas of high air pressure to areas of low air pressure. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, humans began using wind as a source of energy as far back as 5000 BC. Sailors used the wind to navigate from one location to another. Later, humans constructed windmills to grind agricultural products. Subsequently, a series of wind-powered pumps brought water to people, livestock, and fields, paving the way for an agricultural revolution. This technology was then brought to the New World, helping Europeans to cultivate vast wild plains in America. However, as technology advanced, windmills gave way to steam engines and then to electric motors at lower costs. Today, due to rising fossil fuel prices and shortages making electricity production from these sources more challenging, wind is reclaiming its position as it had thousands of years ago in human history. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the wind resource potential alone on the North American continent could meet ten times the current electrical demand of the nation. A 2009 study by Harvard University also indicated that a network of turbines operating at just 20% of their design capacity could meet more than 40 times the global electrical demand. |
