MingYang Launches World’s Largest Offshore Hybrid Drive Wind Turbine

The offshore wind power market is one of the most untapped, high-potential markets. Much of the world could be powered by offshore wind turbines, and I expect we’ll see massive growth in this arena in the coming few decades. Across the wind industry as a whole, including this offshore wind market, one key way to expand it and bring costs down has been to make larger and larger wind turbines. We’ve got more of that news this week from MingYang Smart Energy.

MingYang Smart Energy just rolled out the world’s largest hybrid drive wind turbine, the company claims. It’s the 16-megawatt (MW) MySE 16.0-242. Details are as follows:

“Designed for high-wind IEC IB including typhoon-class IEC TC, the powerful MySE 16.0-242 features an exceptional nameplate capacity of 16MW, a 242-meter diameter rotor, 118-meter long blades, and a staggering 46000m² swept area equivalent of more than six soccer fields.

“With industry’s largest rotor and highest nominal rating, MySE 16.0-242 is set to move the boundaries of wind energy production even further. A single MySE 16.0-242 turbine can generate 80000MWh of electricity every year, enough to power more than 20000 households. In comparison, it produces 45% more energy than MingYang’s previous turbine model, the MySE 11.0-203.”

A 45% energy boost! That’s a big step up.

Big names in the wind industry include Vestas, GE, and Siemens Gamesa. MingYang Smart Energy, on the other hand, is certainly not a household name, not even for CleanTechnica readers. However, it’s getting a lot of headlines for this massive offshore wind turbine — even in broader media outlets. (Superlatives talk.)

Also, note that MingYang isn’t new to the sport either. It has previously developed 5.5MW, 6.45MW, 7.25MW, 8.3MW, and 11MW offshore wind turbines. Altogether, it has shipped more than 10 GW of wind turbines worldwide. The company also emphasizes that it builds relatively light wind turbines, this one included. “The nacelle weight of the MySE 16.0-242 is competitively low at less than 37 tonnes per MW. Compared to a heavier nacelle, its modest head mass allows for more efficient use of the tower and foundation construction, resulting in fewer purchased materials and logistics.”

The company has also put all of its power electronics and the MV-transformer in the nacelle this time — the first it’s done so. It says that this simplifies cabling and makes maintenance easier (and thus cheaper). The company also says it now uses an airtight design that reduces salt exposure and thus corrosion (not a friend of any machine).

The company states that a single MySE 16.0-242 “can eliminate more than 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over the course of its designed 25-year lifespan.”

This MySE 16.0-242 offshore wind turbine is just the first of a series of offshore platforms, each tailored for different settings, whether that be “the typhoon-prone South China Sea” or “the constantly windy North Sea in Europe.”

Here are some final specs for the MySE 16.0-242 wind turbine from MingYang Smart Energy:

Nameplate capacity: 16MW
Height: 264m
Blade length: 118m
Rotor diameter: 242m
Annual energy production (AEP):
   — 45% more than its predecessor, MySE 11.0-203
— 80 million kWh enough to power more than 20000 households
Environmental benefit: 1.6 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions reduced per turbine during 25 years of operation compared to coal-fired power generation.

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