A huge offshore wind turbine with the world’s largest per-unit capacity has successfully rolled off the production line in Fuqing City, east China’s Fujian Province.
Jointly developed by Goldwind and China Three Gorges Corporation, the 16-megawatt wind turbine boasts the world’s longest impeller diameter of 827-foot (252 meters), the lightest per megawatt weight, and a 480-foot (146-meter) hub, which is equivalent to the height of a 50-storied building.
The 16MW unit is the highest-rated generator ever built, which covers a swept area of 50,000 square meters (538,196 square feet) – equivalent to seven soccer fields.
The wind turbine is now the largest single-unit turbine in the Asia-Pacific region. At full wind speed, the new offshore wind turbine can generate 34.2 kWh of power after rotating a full turn, CTG says. It can generate enough electricity to power 36,000 households annually, CTG claim.
In addition, it can save 22,000 tonnes of standard coal and 54,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, with its estimated average annual power output of over 66 million kWh.
The successful roll-out of the 16MW unit marks that China’s wind power equipment industry has achieved a historic leap from ‘following’ to ‘running alongside’ and then to ‘leading,’ creating a new benchmark for the development of global offshore wind power equipment. This will help China’s offshore wind power industry to ride the wind and waves and move forward stably.
