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World’s Largest Wind Turbines to Power 16,000 Homes Each
The world's largest offshore wind farm will now be powered with the world's largest wind turbine, The Guardian reported Tuesday.
The new turbines, built by GE Renewable Energy, are 220 meters (approximately 722 feet) high, nearly 300 feet taller than the London Eye. They have blades more than 100 meters (approximately 328 feet) long and will have the ability to power 16,000 homes each. The turbines will be installed in the Dogger Bank Wind Farms project, to be built off the UK's Yorkshire Coast next year by SSE Renewables and Norway's Equinor.
"Dogger Bank will now be home to the largest offshore wind turbines in the world and to this pioneering low carbon technology, which will play a central role in helping the UK become carbon neutral by 2050," director of capital projects at SSE Renewables Paul Cooley told Offshore Wind.
The UK became the first G7 country to commit to carbon neutrality by mid-century this June.
.@GErenewables #HaliadeX #offshorewind turbines to power the world’s largest offshore wind project: 3.6 GW #doggerbank https://t.co/zZb9P8dMpC pic.twitter.com/wC184pVgKf
— GE Renewable Energy (@GErenewables) October 1, 2019
Dogger Bank is a shallow sandbank in the North Sea that some speculate may be the inspiration for Atlantis, GE Renewable Energy said in a press release. It may have once connected the UK to continental Europe before being flooded by glacier melt 7,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age.
Now, the location could help stave off sea level rise caused by a different form of climate change.
Equinor and SSE won a tender to build three wind farms in the area two weeks ago. Then, on Tuesday, they announced they would use GE Renewable Energy's massive Haliade-X model for the project.
.@SSE and @Equinor_UK select @GErenewables #HaliadeX, the world's most powerful wind turbine, to power the world's largest #offshorewind farm #doggerbank. Read more - https://t.co/F6NMfDl765 pic.twitter.com/SBiCe1sJZ4
— GE Renewable Energy (@GErenewables) October 1, 2019
"We are excited to work with GE Renewable Energy to introduce the next-generation offshore wind turbine to the U.K. and be the first European wind farm to install and operate these innovative turbines," Dogger Bank Wind Farms project director Bjørn Ivar Bergemo said in the GE Renewable Energy press release.
The turbine is about a third more powerful than the most common models currently in use, The Guardian reported. Each turbine has the potential to save 42 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking 9,000 cars off the road for a year, according to GE.
"Our Haliade-X technology is helping our customers to make offshore wind a more competitive source of clean and renewable energy," John Lavelle, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy's offshore wind division, told The Independent.
Dogger Bank Wind Farms, which is set to start generating electricity in 2023, will be able to power 4.5 million homes each year, The Independent reported. That's five percent of the UK's current electricity generation. But the turbines will also be connected by cables to Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Belgium.
The #Netherlands is planning to build the largest offshore #wind farm on Earth by 2027. It could send power to 5 countries https://t.co/M5xtwDCBmE #SDG7 pic.twitter.com/kem8sjy3Ae
— SEforALL (@SEforALLorg) January 13, 2018
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By David R. Montgomery
Would it sound too good to be true if I was to say that there was a simple, profitable and underused agricultural method to help feed everybody, cool the planet, and revitalize rural America? I used to think so, until I started visiting farmers who are restoring fertility to their land, stashing a lot of carbon in their soil, and returning healthy profitability to family farms. Now I've come to see how restoring soil health would prove as good for farmers and rural economies as it would for the environment.
Radish (Raphanus sativus) is a cruciferous vegetable that originated in Asia and Europe (1Trusted Source).
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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released new numbers that show vaping-related lung illnesses are continuing to grow across the country, as the number of fatalities has climbed to 33 and hospitalizations have reached 1,479 cases, according to a CDC update.
Reports of extreme snowfall in the Arctic might seem encouraging, given that the region is rapidly warming due to human-driven climate change. According to a new study, however, the snow could actually pose a major threat to the normal reproductive cycles of Arctic wildlife.
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A new multiyear study found that people living or working within 2,000 feet, or nearly half a mile, of a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) drill site may be at a heightened risk of exposure to benzene and other toxic chemicals, according to research released Thursday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)