China Rolls Out World’s First 26MW Offshore Wind Turbine
China has taken production of super-sized wind turbines a giant step further with a new 26-megawatt turbine. In a statement over the weekend, China’s Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) announced the rollout of the mega-turbine from the production line in Fuzhou. This giant turbine sets a new record for the world’s largest wind turbine by capacity and size, surpassing Dongfang’s previous world record of 18 MW by 31 percent. Just four months ago, Dongfang installed the 18 MW turbine at a coastal test base in Shantou, Guangdong province.
The new 26 MW model is suitable for medium to high wind speed areas, with speeds above eight meters per second (m/s). The turbine boasts a blade wheel diameter of more than 310 meters, with a swept area equivalent to 10.5 standard football fields. The turbine’s hub center is 185 meters high, which is almost the height of a 63-story residential building.
At an average wind speed of 10 meters per second, the turbine can produce 100 GWh of clean electricity annually. This is sufficient to meet the annual electricity needs of 55,000 households, reducing more than 80,000 tons of CO2 emissions, according to Dongfang.
The energy research firm Rystad has termed the shift in sizes of wind turbines as a “growth spurt”, with the average size rising from 3MW in 2010 to the current 26 MW. This shift is likely to be sustained as future wind farms are likely to install larger turbines. Rystad estimates that turbines larger than eight megawatts accounted for just three percent of global installations between 2010 and 2021. However, this percentage is forecast to surge to 53 percent by 2030.
