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Showing Original Post only (View all)A Monster Wind Turbine Is Upending an Industry [View all]
G.E.s giant machine, which can light up a small town, is stoking a renewable-energy arms race.Twirling above a strip of land at the mouth of Rotterdams harbor is a wind turbine so large it is difficult to photograph. The turning diameter of its rotor is longer than two American football fields end to end. Later models will be taller than any building on the mainland of Western Europe.
Packed with sensors gathering data on wind speeds, electricity output and stresses on its components, the giant whirling machine in the Netherlands is a test model for a new series of giant offshore wind turbines planned by General Electric. When assembled in arrays, the wind machines have the potential to power cities, supplanting the emissions-spewing coal- or natural gas-fired plants that form the backbones of many electric systems today.
G.E. has yet to install one of these machines in ocean water. As a relative newcomer to the offshore wind business, the company faces questions about how quickly and efficiently it can scale up production to build and install hundreds of the turbines.
But already the giant turbines have turned heads in the industry. A top executive at the worlds leading wind farm developer called it a bit of a leapfrog over the latest technology. And an analyst said the machines size and advance sales had shaken the industry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/business/GE-wind-turbine.html
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Every day a tiny company in my small town disrupts a billion dollar industry...
Beartracks
Jan 2021
#1
100 of these would power 0.12% of the United States, provided there is wind for full rated capacity
Klaralven
Jan 2021
#2
I guess they have to be offshore to protect people from all the cancer they cause. 😜
TheBlackAdder
Jan 2021
#6
It sometimes takes technology time to catch up, like carbon fiber in the blades and the super
LiberalArkie
Jan 2021
#16