Faced with the force of typhoons, only a titan could remain standing. China has had to think something like this for its new project. Although the Asian country has us accustomed to megastructures, it always knows how to improve itself.
An offshore wind turbine. Chinese state-owned company Dongfang Electric Corporation has announced its 26MW offshore wind turbine, the largest in the world in both capacity and size. The turbine is designed to operate in regions with strong wind gusts, including typhoon-prone areas. The company has explained that it will be able to generate up to 100 GWh of clean energy per year if installed in areas with average winds of 10m/s, which can supply 55,000 homes.
How is it going to work? The turbine has a blade diameter of 310 meters (about 10.5 football fields) and a shaft height of 185 meters (equivalent to 63 stories high). It is equipped with the intelligent iPACOM system, which allows optimal maintenance of the infrastructure and reduces risks. As we have mentioned, it can resist typhoons up to category 17. In addition, this new design can reduce the cost of power generation per kilowatt-hour by more than 10% and increase the level of production by more than 2%.
Typhoons in China. Although they have not detailed where they will install the wind turbine, the company presented the wind turbine on the production line in Fuqing, Fujian. The factory is located almost 500 kilometers away from Shantou, Guangdong province, where the company has an 18 MW turbine installed at a coastal test base.
In the southeastern part of the country, such as Fujian, it is affected by typhoons due to their intensity and frequency, especially in the summer and autumn months. For their part, areas like Guangdong are more vulnerable points because typhoons usually make landfall before losing strength as they move inland. Recently, the last strongest one was category 4 and was called Yagi. This typhoon reached a speed of 237km/h and had a diameter of 118 kilometers.
Was there another, larger wind turbine? The competition stays at home, because until now the title of the largest offshore wind turbine in the world belonged to the company Mingyang Smart Energy. The generator is called MySE 18.X with 20 MW.
Unstoppable with wind energy. These new models of high-capacity wind turbines highlight China’s growth in the renewable energy sector. Recently, another Chinese company, Sany Renewable Energy, has commissioned a 15 MW wind turbine. According to the manufacturer, it has assured that it will be able to supply energy to 160,000 homes.
Imagen | Dongfang Electric Corporation
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