Germany recently took a massive step forward in the country’s transition away from dirty energy to clean energy. According to Electrek, the first of dozens of giant 15 megawatt wind turbines is in place at the He Dreiht wind farm in the North Sea, Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction. The He Dreiht wind farm is the first in the world to use the 15 megawatt turbines, manufactured by Vestas.
The turbines are so powerful that just one spin of one of the rotors produces enough energy to power four households for an entire day. When the entire wind farm, all 64 turbines, is up and running, it will produce 960 megawatts, enough to power roughly 1.1 million homes. It’s expected to begin operation in late 2025.
To put that in perspective, 1,100 pounds of coal needs to be burned to produce one megawatt of power for one hour (one megawatt-hour), according to FreeingEnergy. So that’s 1,056,000 pounds of coal that would need to be burned per hour to match the output of the He Dreiht wind farm.
Per the Environmental Protection Agency, just one megawatt-hour worth of coal creates about 2,180 pounds of carbon pollution, one of the main drivers of the planet overheating, causing increased extreme weather.
It’s easy math but I know you all have the same question. A quick mashing of buttons shows these spin roughly 4,300 times per day (~4296.875 based on the available info). Or 3 times per minute.
Edit: At the tip, it’s traveling 37 m/s, or 83 mph.
37 m/s, or 83 mph.
That’s 133 km/h! That’s fast, imagine the pull on the rotor, and then combined with the pressure from the wind.
It’s also funny the rotation is faster than the wind speed, because cutout is at 31 m/s.
I know that when sailing with old fashioned sail, you can also sail faster than the wind speed. Still it’s a bit curious.
It’s also impressive IMO that they can build it to last 30 years.37 m/s, or 83 mph.
The Turbine is the Vestas V236-15.0 MW.
When the entire wind farm, all 64 turbines, is up and running, it will produce 960 megawatts
Wow that’s a lot!!
The Rotor diameter is 236m!
https://www.vestas.com/en/energy-solutions/offshore-wind-turbines/V236-15MWengineered for a lifespan of 30 years.
It’s crazy how huge modern wind turbines are. The blades are so big they have to be built offshore!
it will produce 960 megawatts
It will? What if there’s no wind? But still, that’s quite a lot. If it averages at about 40% of maximum capacity, that’s about a 400 MW power plant.
I’m really no expert, but i imagine they picked the location of wind farms specifically to maximise the time with useful wind. It seems kind of obvious. Their official site mentions average wind speed of 10,4 m/s at the He Dreiht location.
I am no expert either. But, as far as I know, the cut-off speed for wind farms is around 25 m/s. I assume that the maximum output is when wind speed is 25 m/s. 10,4 m/s is about 40 % of 25 m/s, which means that this power plant’s average production is about 400 MW.
