Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is working on an offshore wind turbine with an output of 10MW, two megawatts more than the present record holder, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review.
The Japanese engineer hopes to gain a larger share of the global offshore wind power market, which is expected to grow a 16% a year, expanding six times by 2030, thanks in large part to the growth of the nascent US industry.
The turbine will be developed by MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy and Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems.
Mitsubishi hopes to bring its machine to market by 2020, ahead of rival projects being developed by General Electric and Siemens.
Mitsubishi and Vestas have already developed a 9.5MW version, and has received orders for more than 260 of them. The largest offshore turbine currently in operation, however, is MHI Vestas’ V164, to be found in Ørsted Energy’s Burbo Bank extension in the Irish Sea, completed in 2016.
Offshore projects are turning to ever larger generators to improve efficiency and profitability: it is considerably cheaper to construct, operate and maintain one 10MW turbine than two 5MW ones.
General Electric is developing a 12,000kW turbine under a $400 million project, aiming to introduce it as early as 2021.Siemens Gamesa has announced a plan to complete an over-10,000kW model by 2024 or 2025
Image: One rotation of an 8MW turbine will provide enough energy to drive a car 40 miles (MHI)
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