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China powers up record-breaking 15 MW onshore wind turbine
Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Sany Renewable Energy recently announced on social media that it has powered up ‘the world’s largest 15 MW onshore wind turbine and successfully achieved operation at rated power’. The company also reports the turbine sets two new world records for ‘the largest single-unit capacity and the largest rotor diameter for an onshore turbine’ to date.Installed in Tongyu, Jilin Province, north-east China, the SI-270150 wind turbine boasts a rotor diameter of 270 metres and a blade length of 131 metres, enabling a swept area of over 57,000 m2, roughly equivalent to about eight football fields. This will allow a single unit to generate enough electricity to power 160,000 households annually, according to Sany. Engineered for medium- to high-wind-speed scenarios, it is capable of generating up to 56mn kWh of electricity annually, assuming an average wind speed of 9 m/s, it adds.
The wind turbine is described as featuring a lightweight design and intelligent load-reduction technologies in order to make it suitable for long-distance transportation despite its substantial size. The drivetrain features a dual tapered roller bearing main shaft support system, ensuring high load-bearing capacity and stability under various operating conditions, notes Sany. In addition, the turbine features dual-transformer-in-nacelle technology, which reduces cable usage and land acquisition costs, making the turbine more economical, continues the manufacturer.
The wind turbine has a design life of 25–30 years.
The wind turbine will now undergo over a year of testing, including nearly 2,000 performance tests to ‘verify the reliability of its components and overall design under real-world conditions’.
Simultaneously, a prototype of the SI-270150 is to be tested on Sany’s 35 MW Six Degrees of Freedom & Drivetrain Back-to-Back Test Bench, reported to be the largest of its kind in the world. The prototype will undergo 18 months of accelerated lifespan ageing tests, equivalent to 30 years of wind farm operation.
