Comments on: Size Does Matter — More Massive Offshore Wind Turbines for Europe

By: Marcacci Communications

Marcacci Communications — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:51:49 +0000

[…] this scenario turbines will get bigger and more powerful, boosting overall project output. The report predicts the average offshore wind […]

By: Jan

Jan — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:12:00 +0000

“However, since wind inland is relatively unpredictable, they usually generate no more than 2MW of power.”

A lot of ignorance in one sentence. Some corrections:

1) Wind power can be predicted very well.
2) The sizing of a wind turbine has nothing to with the predictability of the wind resource.
3) In Germany new wind turbines mostly have a rated power of 3 MW, with a tendency towards even larger wind turbines.
The US is lagging behind a bit.
4) The size, and thus the rated power, of wind turbines on land are limited by regulations and the transportability of components.
5) At sea the foundations are responsible for a large part of the overall investment costs. The costs of the foundations are almost independent on the wind turbine size. At sea it is therefore cheaper to build fewer, but bigger wind turbines.

By: BlueRock

BlueRock — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Note: for those who cite David MacKay’s ‘Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air’ which argues that renewables cannot power the UK, his projections rely on 3 MW turbines.

More at http://thisbluerock.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/david-mackays-sustainable-energy-without-the-hot-air-perhaps-a-little-hot-air-2/