The challenges with big wind turbines

The power produced by a wind turbine scales with the rotor diameter squared and for the last 23 years the turbine manufacturers have used this relationship to increase the capacity of offshore wind turbines from 2 MW to 16 MW, by increasing the rotor diameter from 76 meter to 264 meter.

The motivation for developing larger turbines for the offshore market is to increase energy capacity with the hope that the ‘economics of scale’ will bring down the cost of energy. So far, however, the quest for higher turbine capacity has not reduced the cost of offshore wind, and the European wind turbine manufacturers are now facing financial challenges. To complicate the situation further, the Chinese manufacturer Minyang Wind Power is currently working on a new turbine having a rotor diameter of 310 meter that will produce 22 MW of power.

In this presentation we investigate the impact on engineering, manufacturing, commissioning, and farm-farm interaction due to the ongoing race for bigger turbines.

Thomas Hansen har doktorgrad i vindenergi fra NTNU og jobber som førsteamanuensis ved Høgskolen på Vestlandet (HVL). Han har mer enn 20 års arbeidserfaring innen ingeniørfag og forskning og har nylig jobbet to år for en dansk vindturbinprodusent som aerodynamisk ingeniør på vindmøller til havs.