Things really do take off for leading Danish wind turbine producer Vestas: they have just announced the release of a new wind turbine! Like all new things, this is better because: 1) it is a seven megawatt turbine instead of a six, as predicted or a five as already in use and 2) it is especially for offshore placement.
The first prototype will see the light of day later this year and this is how it will look like: 443 feet high and rotor blades reaching 262 feet.
Its capacity is enough to power 6,500 homes, producing more electricity than any turbine now in use. Apparently, you can make them as big as you want them, but this model is probably going to set the trend for years to come.
Even with this luring potential, you won’t see these turbines popping like mushrooms all over offshore: this is expensive equipment, so Vestas cannot afford to produce numbers of them and tha’s it. And then there is the geographical change of the wind conditions. So they have to receive an order first and then set out to deliver.
The wind energy business is in its rising days: it currently represents only two percent, but Vestas has big plans: they want to see it grow to ten percent by 2020 and works on a seventy percent increase already this year, with the United Kingdom leading the way. So all we need right now is the wind blowing –
