2022-07-21 | Blog 014

I haven't posted anything in a while, I'm not working on any side project as I've been pretty busy with a Digital Twin paper as well as the usual summer happenings.

I visited Whitelee wind farm for the first time recently. It reminded me that I made an image to visualise how big the next generation of offshore wind turbines will be. I didn't have it to hand so I'm sticking it here for future reference.

Click image to see larger version.

Pic from the "Run the Blades" 10km at Whitelee. I didn't run, I was the bag mule for someone else..

On the left is a WT from Whitelee. These are Siemens SWT-2.3 2.3MW turbines with a rotor diameter of 93m. On the right is Siemens SG 222D 14MW turbine, with a rotor diameter of 222m. These are still in development and won't see serial production until 2024.

Onshore WTs are a lot smaller than their offshore counterparts. And, given that only a very small fraction of the population ever get up close to an offshore WT, I think joe public doesn't understand how insanely big WTs have gotten. These are the largest moving structures ever built!

Rory