264 meters: China wants to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbine
In the offshore wind power sector, there is currently a real race around the world for the largest and most efficient systems. Only recently, the world’s largest floating wind farm was launched off the coast of Scotland. According to Handelsblatt, western players such as Vestas and Siemens Gamesa or the Americans from GE dominated the race for the turbines on the seabed. But now China wants to catch up: the company MingYang Smart Energy is planning the world’s largest offshore wind turbine at 264 meters.
Offshore wind turbine is expected to supply 20,000 households
MingYang says it plans to install the first prototype of the offshore wind turbine with the name “MySE 16.0-242” as early as 2023. Commercial production is scheduled to begin the following year. According to the company, the turbine will have a capacity of 16 megawatts. In addition, it should produce 80,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to supply more than 20,000 households. The dimensions of the planned wind turbine are enormous. The length of the rotor blades should be 118 meters, the rotor itself should have a diameter of 242 meters.
“Offshore wind power is experiencing a profound improvement as the key solution for the energy transition. The continuous development of wind turbine technology has made it possible for developers to penetrate deeper waters and develop additional wind resources. MingYang Smart Energy is always motivated to drive this trend forward through innovations,” says the Chinese company.
China is catching up in terms of wind power
Over the course of its 25-year service life, the offshore wind turbine is expected to save more than 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions. This is sorely needed in China because the country has the highest CO2 emissions of all industrialized countries worldwide. The People’s Republic also continues to hold fast to coal-fired power plants for energy generation. Even after the shocking report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August, it has not changed its climate targets.
Nevertheless, China is also becoming an increasingly large player in the field of offshore wind power. According to CNBC , companies in the People’s Republic installed more than half of the world’s new offshore wind power capacity last year. But the competition never sleeps: The Danish supplier Vestas is planning a turbine with a capacity of 15 megawatts. Siemens wants to build a model with 14 megawatts.
