1,000-Foot-Tall Wind Turbine To Be Erected

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An enormous wind turbine, dubbed the “Riesenmühle,” is to be erected in Hamburg, Germany. It is 1,000 feet tall, and the blades span 600 feet. The German name literally translates to “giant mill,” which suits it perfectly.

walney offshore wind farm
Image Credit: Dong Energy

The wind turbine has an electricity generation capacity of 40 MW, which means that it has a very high power-to-height ratio, and can power a whopping 13,333 homes by itself, at peak power production.

It costs $48 million to manufacture. This translates to a reasonable cost of $1.20 per watt of generation capacity.

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In the past, we have discussed the importance of height to the performance of wind turbines, due to the fact that wind speeds increase significantly with altitude.

This is why simply increasing the height of a wind turbine will increase its power production considerably. Although, as is the case with everything, this costs money.

Due to the unusual size of this turbine, a new crane had to be built to install it, and even the nacelle (which you probably know as the head) had to be built on site.

Also, due to its size, the maintenance personnel live inside the turbine’s tower. Why pay them to travel to the turbine site when they can just live in it?

The maintenance personnel living inside even have TVs and internet connections!

Like all other developments, it has its opponents. One of them said: “Oh my God!. What’s the world coming to? Giant spinning skyscrapers?”

Another local, named Betty, said: “This is going to block my view. I won’t have it!”

Yes, this story is a fun fake for April Fools’ Day.


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Nicholas Brown

Has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

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