Denmark has been showing the world how renewable energy is done since the 1980s. Just two months ago, its mammoth wind turbine generated a record-smashing amount of electricity in a 24-hour period.
The colossal V164 offshore wind turbine is 220 meters (722 feet) tall, with blades 80 meters (263 feet) long, and a total sweep area of 21,124 square meters (227,377 square feet). That's bigger than the size of the London Eye Ferris wheel tourist trap.
On December 1, 2016, during a test-run near Østerild, this generated 216,000 kilowatt-hours in a single day. For some perspective, this one turbine could power nearly 240 average American homes for a whole month. The model was originally a V164 8-megawatt wind turbine, but with some fine-tuning and a revamp, they’ve enabled it to reach 9-megawatts.
One of MHI Vestas Offshore Wind's many turbine farms off the coast of the Netherlands. MHI Vestas Offshore Wind
Denmark is in a one-horse race against itself when it comes to breaking wind power technology and generation records. In 2015 they set the world record by generating 42 percent of its electricity through wind turbines. This topped their previous year by 3 percent, which was also a record at the time.
The Østerild prototype is not yet hooked up to the national grid and can only reach these outputs at specific site conditions. However, the company behind this beast, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, remain confident this upgraded model could be hitting the shores soon.
"We are confident that the 9 MW machine has now proven that it is ready for the market, and we believe that our wind turbine will play an integral part in enabling the offshore industry to continue to drive down the cost of energy," Torben Hvid Larsen, CTO of MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, said in a statement.
2