Remember when we got excited about an offshore wind farm with 8 MW turbines? Even those giant beasts are soon to be eclipsed as CNBC reports Vestas has unveiled a gigantic 10 MW model with blades the length of nine double decker buses that could power as many as 5,977 average German homes. (This is not the model pictured above. I was unable to get a press shot in time for this story.)
This announcement is good news indeed. The offshore wind industry has already smashed cost-reduction goals over the past few years, but larger, more powerful turbines could go a long way toward making offshore wind even more competitive with fossil fuels.
The more electricity you can produce from each turbine, the fewer foundations you need to anchor to the sea floor, the fewer maintenance trips you have to make per kWh produced, and the more energy you produce from any given area of the ocean. All of these should help to ensure even lower prices in the future. Larger, taller turbines also tend to make better use of available wind resources—turning regions once thought unsuitable for wind into viable options for development.
Business Green has more on this encouraging development, including the fact that the turbines should be available for commercial deployment by the year 2021, when GE's massive 12 MW model should also be out in the world too. Who knows, maybe the US will finally have gotten moving with offshore wind by then...
