World’s largest wind turbine

World’s largest wind turbines;

Each wind tower comprises the following;

1,300 cubic metre concrete foundation. Energy required in concrete production = 893 megajoules/tonne – plus transport. 1300 cubic metres = 3,250 tonnes weight (2.5 tonne/cubic metre concrete). Therefore concrete foundation used 893 mj x 3,250 tonnes = 2,902,250 megajoules. When 1 megajoule = 3.6kw hours then 2,902,250/3.6 = 806,180 kwh the turbine would have to run just to replace the energy used in the concrete footing.

180 tonnes of steel, 900 tonne total weight including toxic blades made from rare earth minerals.

120m tall tower (40 story building), blades 61.5m long

And even more madness;

Norway wants to build a 180m (533ft, 60 stories) tall wind turbine to power 2000 homes at a cost of $67.5 million. That’s $33,750/house to build, plus blowout costs, running and maintenance costs, plus dismantling costs at end of life. The utter stupidity of the green religion.

And then there’s plans to build a wind turbine with a 164m diameter rotor – (the above ones have a rotor of around 126m) – utter, utter madness.

Filed under: Technology, wind turbine