Large Wind Turbine

Technology Outline

• Power in the wind
• Working principle of wind turbine
• Power curve of a wind turbine
• Rated output power of a wind turbine
• Types of wind turbines
• On-shore wind farms
• Wind turbine installations around the world

Wind turbines for electricity generation emerged at the end of nineteenth centry. The technology grew and became mature for industrial applications since the 1980s. The typical size of wind turbines has been growing steadily in terms of rotor diameter and rated power over the past two to three decades.

In the early 2000s, the most cost-effective size range was 600-750 kW with rotor diameter in the range of 40-47 m. These turbines have been manufactured in substantial quantities by all manufacturers and are the baseline technology from which a new generation of megawatt-scale turbines have recently been developed.

As of early 2007, some manufacturers have started producing turbines with rated power of several MW and with rotor diameter of around 90 metres (e.g. Vestas V90 3.0 MW machine, Nordex N90 2.5MW machine), or even around 100 metres(e.g GE 3.6MW machine). These are primarily for the European market where good sites are at a premium and there is much pressure to make the most energy out of each available site.

Another class of even larger wind turbines are designed or being prototyped primarily for offshore applications, such as the 5MW machine of RE Power with rotor diameter of 126 metres.