The latest development in wind power is a big one—literally. A Chinese state-owned power company has announced the successful operation of the world’s largest wind turbine, the blades of which sweep an area with a radius longer than two football fields put together.
The 500-foot MySE 16-260 (named after Mingyang Smart Energy, the wind technology company that made it) towers over an offshore wind farm owned by China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG), a government-run power company. Gusts of wind are known to kick up to force 7 (32 to 38 miles per hour) along the Taiwan Strait, where the wind farm sits, ready to turn them into clean energy. CTG shared earlier this summer that it had finally finished installing the turbine after kicking off construction in February. But the real test was switching the turbine on, and thankfully, that particular task seems to have been successful.
With blades measuring 403 feet long, the 16-megawatt turbine can produce 67 million kWh of power annually, depending on its capacity factor. (Most turbines in the US hover around a factor of 42%, but again, the Taiwan Strait offers winds most regions don’t.) CTG estimates that’s enough to provide power for roughly 80,000 residents at any given time and negate up to 56,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise result from coal power stations. In contrast, the average land-based turbine in the United States or the United Kingdom generates about 6 million kWh annually after accounting for the 42% capacity factor.
The MySE 16-260 is also designed to withstand typhoons with wind speeds up to 79.8 meters per second, or 178.5 miles per hour. Its durability was quickly tested by Typhoon Talim, which struck southern China in mid-July with wind speeds up to 85 miles per hour. After Talim passed through, the MySE 16-260 was still standing.
CTG plans to introduce more mega-turbines to the grid in “batches,” according to a statement sent to IFLScience. The 16-megawatt offshore turbine produced by Goldwind, one of Mingyang’s competitors, has been knocked to second place in turbine size.
