Tidal Current Energy

96 L. Staudt
Rotor diameter/m
15 m �
112 m �
126 m �
160 m �
’85 ’87 ’89 ’91 ’93 ’95 ’97 ’99 ’01 ’03 ’05 ? 1st year of operation
.05 .3 .5 1.3 1.6 2 4.5 5 8/10 MW installed power
Figure 6.1 . Evolution of modern wind turbine size (Plate 10).
( Source : J. Beurskens, EWEA [1] )
Capacity/MW
80 000
Wind turbines have since become much larger ( Figure 6.1 (Plate 10)) [1] , and the
number of installations has increased significantly ( Figure 6.2 ) [2] . Wind power
capacity by region is shown in Figure 6.3 (Plate 11) [2] .
Although wind turbine size continues to grow, transport limitations are now
beginning to restrict this growth. Furthermore, the cost per MW for wind turbines
increases with size, although the total cost for a wind farm favors large
turbines. Development costs for multi-megawatt machines are enormous. These
two factors will reduce the rate at which wind turbines increase in size with
time. Typical wind farms today use turbines in the range of 1.5–3 MW.
Owing to the increasing cost of fossil fuels, value being given for greenhouse
gas emission reductions and the reducing cost of wind turbine technology, wind
projects are beginning to compete directly with fossil-fuel plant as a source of
electricity generation in the windiest countries.
?
Airbus A380
wing span
80 m
70 000
60 000
50 000
40 000
30 000
20 000
10 000
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
4800 6100 7600 10 200 13 600 17 400 23 900 31 100 39 431 47 620 59 091 74 223
Figure 6.2 . Installed wind power capacity.
( Source : GWEC [2] )