Wind turbines set a record for energy transport, a device enough to power 12,000 homes
- Tram Ho
The Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD is one of the largest wind turbines in the world, with a nominal capacity of 14 Megawatt-hours (MWh). This capacity is similar to GE’s largest Haliade-X turbine and is only behind the Vestas turbine (15 MWh) and global champion MingYang (16 MWh).
Scheduled to go into mass production in 2024, the SG 14-222 DD uses three giant 108-meter-long propellers, creating a sweeping circle of 39,000 square meters. And while it’s nominally rated at 14 MWh, it can activate a “power-up” function that can produce up to 15 MWh of power.
The SG 14-222 DD will be deployed offshore in high winds.
According to Peter Esmann, Senior Product Manager at Siemens Gamesa, this power-boosting function monitors site-specific conditions and stays on about 98% of the time. The feature turns off only during wind storms or excessive turbulence, at which point the turbine’s capacity drops back to 14 MWh.
Although designed for deployment at sea, the prototype will be built on land in late 2021 in Østerild, Denmark. And that’s where it hit the energy production record.
The prototype was deployed on land but has achieved near-maximum performance.
The reported figure is just 1 MWh less than the theoretical maximum of 360 MWh that this turbine would get if it ran at peak power for 24 hours straight. And for comparison, the 359 MWh it generates would power an average of 12,414 homes in the US daily. And the useful life of each of these wind turbines can be up to decades if well maintained.
It’s no surprise that these things keep getting bigger, because the bigger they seem to work the better and fewer costly installation projects need to be done to produce the same amount of power.
Wind power will play an increasingly important role in the future.
According to experts, wind will fill in the gaps that solar cannot and it will be an important part of the renewable energy mix in the future. According to a report by Renew Economy , scaling the industry with these giant turbines is a key reason why industry experts predict that offshore wind costs will fall by 37 to 49 percent. in 2050.
Refer to NewAtlas, Siemens Gamesa
Source : Genk