The fiercest competition that you might not know about is being waged by Chinese wind power firms. Their battle to build increasingly larger and more powerful hurricane-proof wind turbines is raging on with no end in sight.
State-owned manufacturer Dongfang Electric Corporation has temporarily jumped into the lead after unveiling a massive, record-setting 26-megawatt offshore wind turbine model, as Interesting Engineering reported. For now, it’s the world’s largest in both capacity and size.
New Atlas gave some perspective on just how big it is, noting that the 1,115-foot turbines are taller than the Eiffel Tower or the Chrysler Building. The “blade swept” area of 812,424 square feet stretches the length of 14 NFL football fields or 12 Boeing 747s.
Its energy generation capacity is also staggering, with the company saying it can power around 55,000 Chinese homes with 22 mph winds. That could cut down coal use by 33,000 tons and reduce carbon pollution by 80,000 tons.
Despite its huge size, it isn’t vulnerable to storms, with Dongfang saying it is built to survive winds of up to 137 mph. The turbine is built for areas that average 18 mph winds or higher.
The push for larger and larger wind turbines by Chinese firms makes sense. The bigger the turbine blades get, the more efficient they get with greater power generation capabilities that take advantage of healthy offshore winds.
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That, combined with China’s aim for carbon neutrality by 2060, is why the country is “pushing the limits of wind turbine technology,” as Interesting Engineering put it. Despite these innovations, China is the world’s largest polluter and currently responsible for nearly 31% of carbon pollution, per Our World in Data.
Dongfang’s model passes Mingyang’s 20-MW model with plenty of room to spare. It comes on the heels of another government-backed manufacturer, CRRC, unveiling a 20-MW model of its own. Notably, Interesting Engineering said a former holder of the world’s largest wind turbine at 15 MW, Swedish company Vestas, has no plans to build any bigger.
China’s technological innovation in wind energy is exciting for the clean energy sector. Typhoon-proof turbines like Mingyang’s OceanX have already passed extreme weather tests like Super Typhoon Yagi’s 139 mph winds with flying colors
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The greater the capacity these increasingly enormous turbines take on, the less potential carbon pollution and reliance on dirty energy globally.
It is worth wondering if we should expect to see wind solutions like these behemoths in America. They require very complex and expensive manufacturing, transportation, and installation. The increasingly huge turbines exacerbate these challenges.
For that reason, a Bill Gates-backed startup, Airloom Energy, is one of many challengers looking to create more compact, smaller wind turbine systems as an alternative.
Still, it’s clear in China the race to the biggest wind turbines imaginable will continue unabated.
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