Chinese company Dongfang Electric Corp. says it has built a new offshore wind turbine with a power-producing capacity of 26 megawatts. If true, that is freakishly enormous: The entire Lempster Mountain Wind Power Project, whose 12 turbines were the first wind farm in New Hampshire, has a total capacity of 24 megawatts.
Bloomberg story is here but is paywalled.
Big turbines reduce the costs of offshore wind operations by limiting the amount of equipment needed. China is a leader in both offshore wind installations and large turbines. Last week another Chinese company, CRRC Corp., said it had made the world’s largest floating offshore wind turbine with “a diameter of 260 meters and a swept area of 53,100 square meters, roughly the size of seven standard soccer fields.”
China is cleaning our clocks in 21st-century energy.
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Soon after it was operating and connected to the grid, it was dismantled and shipped out to California to the Altamont Pass, East of Oakland. The project was proven to be a successful test on whether or not a wind system could be a useful contribution to the power grid without causing any instabilities. Some of the personnel moved out to Tracy and Livermore along with a few other people I knew. Good times. I worked there for 2 years for another company.