4,000 homes?! That's seriously impressive. I know that people don'twant to look out their windows and see a bunch of gigantic windmills,but it seems better than looking out your window and not being able tosee very far because of the smog caused by coal-powered plants. Whyaren't we seeing more use of wind power here in the States? –Adam Frucci

Worlds Largest Wind Turbine Generator

Read about the world's biggest wind turbines - 5MW

  

The world's biggest wind turbine generator iscurrently undergoing testing in the North Sea 15 miles off the Eastcoast of Scotland near the Beatrice Oil Field. This is the first timethese enormous offshore wind turbines have actually been testedoffshore, and the first time any wind turbine generator has beenassembled in such deep water - 44 metres deep. Assembly took place inAugust 2006.

Similar prototype turbines have been in operation since 2004 inBrunsbüttel, Germany requiring a 1,300 cubic metre concrete foundationconstructed of 40 24 metre long concrete piles and 180 tons of steel. Afurther two 5M offshore wind turbineshave recently (December 2006) been erected on the DEWI-OCC test fieldin Cuxhaven, Germany, and taken into operation. The Cuxhaven site isnear to a North Sea dyke and so offers similar wind conditions to thosefound offshore. There are plans for at least five more of these 5M windturbines to be installed during 2007.


The German RePower turbines have a power output of 5 Megawattswith a rotor blade diameter of 126 metres sweeping an area of over12,000 square metres. Maximum power output is achieved at around 30mph, but a couple of MW are generated even in a fresh breeze. Rotorsstart turning at around 7 mph, and are automatically braked at 70mph.

Power control is achieved by blade pitching - i.e. turning the rotor bladesindividually out of very strong wind to prevent the whole structurebeing damaged. Find out more about power control with our guide to wind turbine furling.

Each turbine weighs over 900 tonnes including the 120 metre tall tower which has to be anchored in the deep water. Each turbine blade is 61.5 metres long and weighs under 18 tonnes. LM Glasfiber,the turbine blade manufacturer, has made quite some achievement to keepthe weight down so low thereby reducing the financial and environmentalcosts of building wind turbines

Such large wind turbine generators are ideally suited to the offshoreenvironment thanks to high consistent wind speeds and minimalturbulence. According to historical measures of wind speeds at theBeatrice offshore location, it is expected that the turbines will runan impressive 96% of the time (8440 hours per year), and at 5MW full power 38% of the time (3300 hours per year).