The Race to Build a Wind Behemoth

[Pedestrian]

By Erin Ailworth
Aug. 24, 2018 9:00 a.m. ET

Some of the world’s top manufacturing companies are embroiled in a fierce competition. The contest: Who can build the most powerful offshore wind turbine?

From General Electric Co. to Siemens AG to MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, industrial giants are racing to build skyscraper-size turbines that can generate 10 megawatts apiece or more, a symbolic threshold for the wind industry. The more powerful the turbine, the cheaper it can generate electricity from a single location, generally speaking.

The prize in this engineering derby could be dominance over a multibillion-dollar offshore wind market that is set to boom in coming decades—notably in the U.S., where the Atlantic coast beckons as an ideal location for large-scale wind generation.

“There’s a kind of arms race under way,” says Aaron Barr, a principal consultant with research firm Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

Offshore wind turbines have been growing larger for years as companies develop bigger and bolder designs. That’s helped steadily lower the price of generating power from wind.

When the first offshore wind farm, Vindeby, was commissioned in shallow waters off Denmark in 1991, its 450-kilowatt turbines stood 52.5 meters tall and had blades 16 meters long (or about 170 feet tall and 52 feet long). The turbines were designed by a company that’s now part of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy , in which Siemens has a majority stake.

Vindeby’s 11 turbines, decommissioned last year, would be lilliputians compared with the mammoth machines now being built. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, the average offshore turbine installed in 2017 was a 5.9-megawatt (or 5,900 kilowatt) machine. GE’s model of around that size, 6 megawatts, is 170 meters tall.

The most powerful turbine currently in existence, MHI Vestas’s V164 prototype, is capable of generating 9.5-megawatts of electricity, and is 187 meters tall, or roughly twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. Its 80-meter-long blades stretch nearly 12 meters farther than the wingspan of a Boeing 747 . . . .

But it was GE that made the biggest splash when it announced plans for a 12-megawatt turbine in March. Known as the Haliade-X, it would stand nearly three times as tall as the Statue of Liberty and harness wind with blades that sweep an area the size of seven football fields. If it were to be installed on a typical German North Sea site, GE estimates the machine could generate enough power to supply 16,000 European households . . . .

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-race-to...535115601?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

GE is developing these monsters not just for Europe but also potentially for installation up and down the US east coast.

[photoLith]

Freaking sweet. Hope they get built all over.

[202_Cyclist]

Here is some very good news for a change.

Virginia’s first offshore wind turbines promise jobs and clean power. They won’t come cheap


Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, center, looks over one of two offshore wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach on Monday. (Steve Helber/AP)

By Gregory S. Schneider
June 30, 2020
Washington Post

"ATLANTIC OCEAN, NEAR VIRGINIA BEACH — The boat had just lost sight of land when two delicate shapes appeared on the horizon, like needles sprouting from the sea. As the boat got closer, they seemed to grow — and grow — until they towered above passing container ships.

Two wind turbines now rise higher than the Washington Monument off the coast of Virginia Beach, $300 million down payments on what state officials wager will be a new industry and a source of clean energy for the future.

The last 253-foot blade was attached to one of the turbines Friday by contractors for Dominion Energy, Virginia’s biggest utility and the owner of the project. On Monday, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed laws creating a state Office of Offshore Wind and setting a mandate for 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2034..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/vir...8-bacf-11ea-bdaf-a129f921026f_story.html

[Alpha]

Which is the technical limit for a rotor diametre of a wind turbine with horizontal axis? It must be checked, how durable such enormous wind turbine rotors are.

[SIGSEGV]

I thought this thread would be about the Strandbeests.

• Video Link

[202_Cyclist]

Huge Turbines Will Soon Bring First Offshore Wind Power to New Yorkers
New York’s best bet for entering the era of offshore wind power is stacked up at the water’s edge in Connecticut.


New York Times
Nov. 27, 2023
By Patrick McGeehan


The giant parts for wind turbines await pickup at a pier in New London, Conn. (Credit...Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times)

"The pier on the Connecticut coast is filled with so many massive oddities that it could be mistaken for the set of a sci-fi movie. Sword-shaped blades as long as a football field lie stacked along one edge, while towering yellow and green cranes hoist giant steel cylinders to stand like rockets on a launchpad.

It is a launching point, not for spacecraft, but for the first wind turbines being built to turn ocean wind into electricity for New Yorkers. Crews of union workers in New London, Conn., are preparing parts of 12 of the gargantuan fans before shipping them out for final assembly 15 miles offshore.

“They’re sort of space-stationesque,” said Christine Cohen, a Democratic state senator who toured the assembly site last week. “Seeing the components up close, it’s just breathtaking how immense they are..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/nyregion/offshore-wind-power-farm-ny.html

[Busy Bee]

A worthy bump. Thanks for posting.

[mrnyc]

^ those are headed for up off the sound, yes?

the nj/staten wind farms were cancelled due to rising costs.

not sure whats happening with the governor’s plan to build them in staten?

[mrnyc]

i found this article about all the proposed local wind farms and their status:




Where do New York offshore wind projects stand? Here’s the latest.

Published: Jul. 03, 2023
By Joseph Ostapiuk | [email protected]


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York’s ambitious alternative energy goals are beginning to take shape in the waters off the Atlantic coast.

Gov. Kathy Hochul last week announced South Fork Wind, the state’s first offshore wind farm, achieved its “steel in the water” milestone after the project’s first monopile foundation was installed for the creation of its U.S.-built offshore substation.

That effort puts South Fork on pace to be the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters with an anticipated completion date by the end of the year — advancing New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035.


more:
https://www.silive.com/news/2023/07/wher...ind-projects-stand-heres-the-latest.html

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

^ those are headed for up off the sound, yes?

the nj/staten wind farms were cancelled due to rising costs.

not sure whats happening with the governor’s plan to build them in staten?

Yes, I believe these are going to be in the eastern end of the Long Island Sound.

The wind turbines in New Jersey were going go be off the coast of south Jersey.

[Lost Island]

A breakthrough technology allowing turbines to float on the sea, in tandem, rather that the prototype deep anchoring will bring construction/maintenance costs down considerably. Looks to be totally viable as per a recent article.

The possibilities and potential to renewables are as fascinating as they are exciting. I just read a project out of UK that involved harnessing the wind generated by passing traffic, off all things. Cars passing at 50mph created enough stir (a brief 12 mph flurry) to turn little propellers along a sign that could feasibly power highway lights.

Harnessing the Power of Passing Traffic: Roadside Wind Turbines Explained

[scourba]

What are your thoughts on the progress of offshore wind projects, particularly those in New York and the use of breakthrough technologies like floating turbines?

[202_Cyclist]

This investment from the Biden administration in clean, renewable, energy will create good American jobs, reduce our dependence on Russian and Middle Eastern oil, and improve air quality.

Feds provide nearly half a billion dollars toward construction of Humboldt Bay marine terminal supporting offshore wind

The $426.7 million grant will help fund construction of a modern, heavy lift marine terminal to support construction and service of offshore wind turbines.

By Mary Callahan
Press Democrat
Jan. 23, 2024


The site of the proposed Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind and Heavy Lift Marine Terminal, and Nordic Aquafarms, left, along Humboldt Bay, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. (Christopher Chung / The Press Democrat file)

"Plans for a high-tech marine terminal to support the building and operation of offshore wind turbines off the Humboldt County Coast received a boost of nearly half a billion federal dollars Monday.

The $426,719,810 grant for the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation, funded in part by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act of 2021.

The funding is for construction of the onshore facilities to support ambitious state and federal clean energy goals that call for at least five gigawatts of power to be generated offshore of California by 2030 and 25 gigawatts by 2045. The federal nationwide target is 30 gigawatts by 2030 and 110 by 2050. Depending on the source, one gigawatt can power anywhere from 225,000 to 700,000 homes a year..."

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/ne...dollars-toward-construction-of-humboldt/

[KlausD2]

Source: abendblatt.de/region/schleswig-holstein/sylt/article240661634/Daenemark-plant-gigantische-Windraeder-direkt-vor-Sylt.html

[202_Cyclist]

This is really fantastic news. I have some shares of Skanska stock. I hope the worms in RFK Jr.’s brain are doing backflips right now.

Skanska awarded $861M offshore wind development job
The Empire Wind project will transform the 73-acre South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into one of the biggest dedicated offshore wind ports in the country.

By Zachary Phillips
Construction Dive

“Sweden-based contractor and developer Skanska has won a $861 million contract to transform the 73-acre South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into one of the biggest dedicated offshore wind ports in the U.S., the company announced.

SBMT is a historic part of New York City’s working waterfront. It will become a critical piece of the Empire Wind 1 project, the first of two offshore wind facilities, facilitating the reception, storage and pre-assembly of offshore turbine components.

The port, when finished, will serve as the operational and maintenance hub for the offshore wind farm, acting to integrate power from Empire Wind 1 to New York City’s electricity grid at Gowanus Substation in Brooklyn. SBMT will also be scalable and able to expand as a port for future developments in the East Coast offshore wind market...”

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/skanska-south-brooklyn-marine-terminal-offshore-wind/714607/

[202_Cyclist]

Asshole!

Wind energy is already creating good jobs and providing Americans with cheap power across the country. Shame!

https://bsky.app/profile/joshtpm.bsky.social/post/3lg7vc2cmt227

[mousquet]

^ Do you think the Feds have any significant take on this?
Nothing much to do with offshore turbines, but anyway, I recently heard that wind farms in Texas for instance were a profitable business.
If people think it's good for their economy and communities like they would've done in Texas for long by now, state governments might push that kind of projects further, no matter what the new federal administration thinks of it.
Well, that's what I heard lately.

As for jobs, yes, the industry pays well. For example, I have a cousin who's worked on offshore turbines implemented around Saint-Nazaire in western France. He also worked on offshore platforms in Denmark, for the same purpose.
He makes a pretty good living and they've got everything needed to feel comfortable on their platforms, including gyms and all.
The only downside is he's frequently been away from his family over extended periods of time, but he's happy with his job anyway.

Originally Posted by Alpha

Which is the technical limit for a rotor diametre of a wind turbine with horizontal axis? It must be checked, how durable such enormous wind turbine rotors are.

I don't know, but I think these things require serious maintenance. I'll ask my cousin next summer, if I get in touch with him and don't forget.

Also, this industry arouses much nimbyism in my country and maybe in yours too. A lot of people think wind turbines are eyesores.

[202_Cyclist]

The amount of self-inflicted harm and destruction to our country in only four weeks is absolutely tragic.

Trump’s wind power restrictions put blue states’ climate goals out of reach

By Jake Spring
Washington Post


“After the election, Shell pulled out of a major turbine project off New Jersey, and an Italian undersea cable maker nixed a factory in Massachusetts that was set to employ hundreds at the site of an old coal-fired power plant. On Feb. 3, New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities decided not to buy power from any wind projects in its latest round of bidding, given that two companies had pulled out and the remaining one had lost Shell as a partner. Two days later, the CEO of the Norwegian oil company Equinor, Anders Opedal, said on an earnings call that the company was cutting its global investments in renewables by half through 2027 and acknowledged the U.S. wind market was “challenging.”

President Trump’s Day 1 executive order freezing all approvals for offshore wind threatens to shutter dozens of additional projects. And it’s limited what even some of the most liberal politicians, who had hoped to step into the breach with their states’ climate targets, can do...”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/16/trump-offshore-wind-blue-states/