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July 28, 2023
By LAURA SIMMONS
It’s turbo time.
The World’s Largest
Wind Turbine Has Been Switched On
![](images/images_08_10_2023/wind-turbine-l%20copy.jpg)
The new mega-turbine is similar to the
one pictured here, from the MySE series, designed and produced by
Mingyang Smart Energy. Image credit: Mingyang Smart Energy
China has long been touted as a
revolutionary when it comes to wind power. Earlier this year, it was
reported that the country had begun construction of a wind farm using
what were then hailed as the largest turbines ever seen, each with a
capacity of 16 megawatts. Now, a new milestone has been reached, with
the successful switch-on of a turbine with a rotor diameter over twice
the length of a football field.
China Three Gorges Corporation announced that the 16-megawatt MySE
16-260 turbine had been successfully installed at the company’s
offshore wind farm near Fujian Province on July 19. The behemoth is
152 meters (500 feet) tall, and each single blade is 123 meters (403
feet) and weighs 54 tons. This means that the sweep of the blades as
they rotate covers an area of 50,000 square meters (nearly 540,000
square feet).
It's the first time such a large turbine has been hooked up to a
commercial grid.
According to the corporation, just one of these turbines should be
able to produce enough electricity to power 36,000 households of three
people each for one year. Detailing the impressive green credentials
of this technology, they claim that wind-powered domestic electricity
could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 54,000 tons compared with
using coal-fired power stations.
The Fuijian offshore wind farm sits in the Taiwan Strait. Gusts of
force 7 on the Beaufort scale, classified as “near gales”, are a
regular occurrence in these treacherous waters, which is obviously
perfect for generating wind power – provided, of course, that your
turbines can withstand the weather. Mingyang Smart Energy, who
designed the MySE 16-260, were already confident their machine was up
to the challenge, stating in a LinkedIn post that it could handle
“extreme wind speeds of 79.8 [meters per second].”
Still, it wasn’t very long at all before these claims were put to the
test, in the wake of the devastating typhoon Talim that ravaged East
Asia earlier this month. The typhoon threat is ever-present in this
region, and the new mega-turbine withstood the onslaught.
Buoyed by the success of this installation, China Three Gorges
Corporation is already looking to the future. “In the next step, the
16 [megawatt] unit will be applied in batches in the second phase of
the Zhangpu Liuao Offshore Wind Farm Project constructed by China
Three Gorges Corporation,” said executive director of the Three Gorges
Group Fujian Company Lei Zengjuan.
Whilst China has been leading the way in developing bigger and more
powerful turbines, other countries are hot on its heels. Construction
is underway on the USA’s Vineyard Wind 1, a massive offshore
development that will incorporate 13-megawatt GE Haliade-X turbines.
In 2021, Denmark announced a project to build a dedicated artificial
island of wind turbines off its coast.
In a world where a push away from fossil fuels is more urgently needed
than ever before, any and all advances in renewable energy must surely
be good news.
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
Nathan1@greenplayammonia.com
exactrix@exactrix.com
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