Wind Turbine With Blades Taller Than the Sydney Harbour Bridge Breaks World Record

Offshore wind farm. Photocreo Bednarek/Adobe Stock

A wind turbine spanning a distance taller than the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Statue of Liberty has set the world record for the highest power output over a 24-hour period: 359 megawatt-hours.

The 14-222 DD offshore wind turbine, developed by Siemens Gamesa, can generate enough power for a mid-sized car—like the Tesla Model 3—to drive 1.12 million miles (or 1.8 million kilometres), according to the company.

A single blade is 108 metres long (354 feet) and the diameter 222 metres (728 feet), exceeding the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the top of the arch to sea level (134 metres or 440 feet) and the total height of the Statue of Liberty (93 metres or 305 feet).

The Spanish-German company says the blades can be recycled and will power around 18,000 homes annually.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Skyline are seen illuminated prior to the Earth Hour 2009 power switch-off in Sydney, Australia, on March 28, 2009. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

The turbine achieved the power output 10 months into testing at a site in Østerild, Denmark.

The company said the 14-222 DD delivered 25 percent more energy compared to its predecessor.

“With every new generation of our offshore direct drive turbine technology—which uses fewer moving parts than geared turbines—component improvements have enabled greater performance while maintaining reliability,” said Siemens Gamesa in a statement.

The company is already fulfilling an order for 60 of the turbines to be installed at the Moray West wind farm in Scotland.

Is Bigger Better?

Wind turbine blades will only get bigger and wider as developed countries push hard to reach net-zero, according to John Dorgan, an expert in polymeric material at Michigan State University.

“Larger wind turbine blades are more efficient, so companies keep making bigger and bigger ones,” said Dorgan in a statement in late August. “Often, wind farms will actually replace the turbine blades before the end of service life because the farms can generate more electricity with bigger blades.”

However, the conundrum scientists and political leaders are confronted with is how to dispose of the blade waste once it is no longer in use—it is estimated around 40 million tonnes of blade waste will need to be disposed of by 2050.

Wind turbines have a lifespan of around 20 to 25 years, and when they are retired, they are disposed of in one of three ways: recycling, incineration, or dumping into landfills—namely because only 30 percent of a blade can be recycled.

“As it is so expensive to recycle them, and the recovered materials are worth so little, it is not realistic to expect a market-based recycling solution to emerge, so policymakers need to step in now and plan what we’re going to do with all these blades that will come offline in the next few years,” said Prof. Peter Majewski of the University of South Australia on June 20.

One potential solution being developed by Michigan State University is to create a new material to be used in building wind turbines that can then be recycled into a variety of products, including countertops, sinks, laptop covers, and potentially even gummi bears for consumption.

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• Wind Turbine Blade Waste Could Be Recycled Into Gummi Bears: Researchers