Taller, faster, better, stronger: wind towers are only getting biggeR

UNSW Prof Con Doolan has written an excellent and easily read primer on wind turbines.

https://theconversation.com/taller-faster-better-stronger-wind-towers-are-only-getting-bigger-120492

The newest are about 50 stories tall, such as GE's Haliade-X 12Mw 260m beast. This isn't driven by developer vanity, their efficiency is significantly better because they reach higher into the sky where winds are stronger and more consistent. They generate about 60% of the time, compared to IFN's 26-35%. Yes. That's right.

All existing wind farms are - I struggle to find the right word - out-dated, superseded, redundant. They aren't broken, they have simply been overtaken by technology. The other elements of wind farms remain the same - siting, permits, power connection, inverter, grid connection, financing, customers, community relations, etc. Yet any wind farm developer proposing anything smaller will struggle to be taken seriously.

The under-construction Cherry Tree WF uses 3.6Mw turbines with 136m rotors, so is reasonable kit. Shovel-ready Forsayth is probably being reconfiguring to take advantage of this significant leap forward. The older WFs can spin along to the end of their useful lives, though their utility is shaded by recent developments.

Ash