Offshore wind turbine farms are where we see some of the largest machines on the planet.
The feats of engineering in offshore wind are becoming truly astonishing, for a simple reason: the amount of energy you can extract from a turbine depends mostly on its swept area. But also, crucially, the greater the bonus becomes for adding more length.
Furthermore, these huge offshore turbines are extremely expensive to install, and the economics of deployment and grid connection tend to work in favour of fewer, larger turbines than more, smaller ones. So, it's good to hear that a new offshore turbine prototype from Siemens Gamesa, which is to be installed at the Østerild test site in Denmark, is a ginormous 21.5-MW affair with a rotor diameter of 905 ft (276 m).
Early last year, Siemens Gimensa was certain its project would feature "the world's most powerful offshore wind turbine prototype."
Indeed, its plan involved a bigger turbine than the current world's largest one set up in China by Mingyang Smart Energy in September 2024 - a 20-MW behemoth with a rotor diameter of 853-958 ft (260-292 m) sweeping a total area larger than 12 NFL football fields.
However, as Windpower Monthly noted, while the Østerild test facility has shown footage of Siemens' prototype turbine being transported there for installation late last month, it's probably going to be a while before it's erected and functional.
And that means it's likely that China will beat Denmark to the punch: last October, Dongfang Electric Corporation confirmed it rolled a giant 26-MW turbine off its production line. That monster turbine is said to be a dizzying 1,115 ft tall (340 m) - that's only 130 ft (40 m) short of the top floor of the Empire State building - with a blade diameter of 1,107 ft (310 m). However, the company hasn't yet announced details of how far it has progressed with installing it. So, maybe, Siemens Gimensa will hold the crown - at least for a short while.