Climbing crane shimmies up turbine towers like a kid up a coconut tree

To build or maintain today’s colossal wind turbine towers, you either need an absolute monster of a crane – or something like this. The KoalaLifter self-climbing crane is quick, compact, handles heavy loads and creeps up turbine towers of any height.Co… Continue reading Climbing crane shimmies up turbine towers like a kid up a coconut tree

Extraordinary contra-rotating floating wind turbines to begin testing

A wildly innovative turbine that could halve the cost of offshore wind is set to go into testing in Norway. The 19-m (62-ft), 30-kW, contra-rotating vertical-axis turbine is a prototype of a design that could scale to unprecedented size and power.Conti… Continue reading Extraordinary contra-rotating floating wind turbines to begin testing

Gargantuan 22-MW wind turbine will be among history’s largest machines

The bigger the wind turbine, the better the production and the economics. Hence, they're scaling up to ludicrous proportions.

Imagine something as tall as New York’s Chrysler building, but spinning. China’s Mingyang Smart Energy has announced plans for a colossal 22-megawatt offshore wind turbine, and standing in its presence will be an unprecedented human experience.

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Single-bladed floating wind turbine promises half the cost, more power

We haven’t seen a floating offshore wind turbine like this before. Touchwind claims its innovative single-blade turbines will solve several problems to drive down cost and downtime, using a single, huge blade with no fancy active pitch controls.Continu… Continue reading Single-bladed floating wind turbine promises half the cost, more power

Active wind turbine control aims to cut bird deaths by 80%

It’s hard to ascertain how many birds fly into the spinning blades of wind turbines and die as a result – and indeed, the topic is so politically charged that I’d recommend a radiation suit before even googling it. The American Bird Conservancy has wad… Continue reading Active wind turbine control aims to cut bird deaths by 80%

Converting Wind to Electricity or: The Doubly-Fed Induction Generator

Humanity has been harvesting energy from the wind for centuries. The practice goes back at least to 8th century Persia where the first known historical records of windmills came, but …read more Continue reading Converting Wind to Electricity or: The Doubly-Fed Induction Generator

World’s largest wind turbine is now fully operational and connected

This colossal 16-MW turbine is now the largest ever connected to a power grid

Three Gorges Energy has connected the world’s first 16-megawatt monster offshore wind turbine to the power grid. With a mind-boggling 260-meter (853-ft) rotor diameter, this towering colossus will supply clean energy for about 36,000 Chinese homes.

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Pivoting arms could stabilize massive floating offshore wind turbines

As we’ve discussed many times before, offshore wind represents an enormous opportunity for clean energy, but some of the best resources are out in deep water, where sinking a shaft straight into the sea bed becomes prohibitively expensive and difficult… Continue reading Pivoting arms could stabilize massive floating offshore wind turbines