How tall are modern wind turbines

The platform is critical to stabilizing the immense weight of the turbine assembly. How much do wind turbines weigh? In the GE 1.

The corresponding weights for the Vestas V90 are 75, 40, and , total tons; and for the Gamesa G87 72, 42, and , total tons. What is the nacelle? The gearbox — which transforms the slow turning of the blades to a faster rotor speed — and the generator are massive pieces of machinery housed in a bus-sized container, called the nacelle, at the top of the tower. The blades are attached to the rotor hub at one end of the nacelle. Some nacelles include a helicopter landing pad.

Are wind turbines more intrusive than other structures of similar size? Besides the noise and vibrations such huge moving machines unavoidably generate, they must be topped with flashing lights day and night to increase their visibility.

The moving blades attract attention. The first Haliade-X is currently under construction in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. GE said in April it will begin producing electricity later this year. I often return to this post by energy analyst Ramez Naam on the ultimate potential of wind power.

So turbines like the Haliade-X would be more valuable even if the price of wind electricity stayed the same. A recent NREL report projected that innovations in wind power technology of which bigger turbines is one of many could drive it down another 50 percent by Researchers at the University of Virginia are working on a design for an offshore turbine that will tower, no lie, 1, feet, higher than the empire state building.

Say new US wind turbines reach an average hub height of feet by , roughly in line with current projections. That much wind, at that capacity factor, with foreseeable advancements in wind tech, will produce power cheap enough to absolutely crush all competitors. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. These huge new wind turbines are a marvel. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. The GE Haliade-X, a big-ass wind turbine. GE The declining price of solar power gets more press, but there are big things happening in wind technology too. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Keep reading for a list of some of the most common wind turbines currently in production, or scheduled to begin soon, along with their sizes.

The blades alone measure about feet in length and the overall structure weighs about 73, pounds. The turbine has seen action in the Irish Sea, and has also been chosen for projects set to begin in mid The rotor diameter of the turbine spans about feet. With a rotor diameter of almost feet, this turbine has been widely used off the coast of England and in Germany. The power rating of the turbine is about eight megawatts. This turbine has a rotor diameter of about feet. It is one of the largest onshore turbines in production.

Development toward serial production of this Chinese turbine has been a bit slow, but the design is very compact and features just two blades. The prototype is about feet in diameter, and the company is also working on larger variants. With an output of about six megawatts, the design features blades specifically designed in Germany. The other main parts are built in China. But powerful storms hit such places—off the U.

This design also lessens the possibility that strong winds will bend a spinning blade toward its tower, potentially knocking the whole structure down [ Video ]. Above a wind speed of 80 to 95 kilometers per hour the system would shut down and the blades would bend away from the wind, so they could withstand violent gusts, Loth adds.

How do you put them together? How do you erect such a tall tower? Cranes only go so high. The question is, how much bigger? Next summer they plan to construct a larger version with two meter-long blades, which will produce less than a megawatt of power and will be tested in Colorado. Already a subscriber?