Siemens Gamesa has unveiled the design for what will become the world’s largest and most powerful wind turbine.
The company expects it to be commercially available from 2024, with the first prototype being deployed next year.
The turbine will have a base generation capacity of 14MW, a rotor diameter of 222 metres and feature a direct drive generator – hence its designation as the SG 14-222 DD. The blades will be 108 metres long and will sweep an area equivalent to five and a half football pitches.
“We’ve gone bigger for the better,” said Markus Tacke, chief executive of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. “Safely and sustainably providing clean energy for our customers and society-at-large is at the core of all we do. The new SG 14-222 DD is a global product which allows all of us take giant steps towards protecting and preserving our planet.”
Andreas Nauen, chief executive of Siemens Gamesa’s offshore division, said: “Since we helped create the offshore wind industry in 1991, we’ve been determined to safely increase operational performance, minimize technology risks, and create a consistently lower levelized cost of energy.
“The SG 14-222 DD demonstrates our drive to lead the way in a world powered by clean energy. In fact, just one unit will avoid approx. 1.4 million tons of CO2 emissions compared to coal-fired power generation over the course of its projected 25-year lifetime.”
The turbine will be technically capable of generating up to 15MW of electricity at a time but only at certain sites and will be automatically limited to 14MW when there is turbulence or wind speeds are too high.
It will take the crown for the world’s largest and most powerful turbine from GE Renewable Energy’s 12MW Haliade-X model, which is currently undergoing trials at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s test centre in Blythe and has been selected by SSE Renewables and Equinor for their 3.6GW Dogger Bank offshore wind project.