Why giant turbines are pushing the limits of possibility - Simon Hogg Commented on BBC

Next year, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas will put up a gargantuan prototype - a 15-megawatt (MW) wind turbine that will be powerful enough to provide electricity to roughly 13,000 British homes. Having a rotor diameter of 236m, it will be the biggest wind turbine in the world. Wind turbines just keep getting bigger and it's happening faster than almost anybody predicted. But are we ready for such giant wind turbines? Simon Hogg, among a few from wind energy research and industries, commented on BBC news. 

Prof Hogg said that: "There has to be a physical limit although nobody has yet put a number on that. Instead, it's the practicalities of putting these machines in place and maintaining them that might first become problematic." 

Prof Hogg adds that the cost of maintaining hundreds of very large turbines, miles offshore could go up over time. "Something like that, may be the defining driver as to how big offshore wind turbines can actually get," he says.

The size of the turbine also sets a rotational speed limit as current turbine designs have a maximum speed for the blade tip of around 90m/s, or 324km/h (201mph), says Prof Hogg, which has a "big effect on the overall aerodynamics of the blade."

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