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http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/../photos/data/2/European_Union_Flag.jpg One of the largest wind turbines the world has ever seen is currently being assembled in northern Germany. It is just a test, but soon, the monsters may become a major component of offshore wind parks.
(http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,606974,00.html)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Offshore_Wind_Turbine.jpgDer Speigel - Feb 12, 2009

Economies of scale -- Ed.

When it comes to wind turbines, bigger is better. That, at least, is what the German company REpower is hoping. The company this week is planning to erect one of the biggest wind turbines in the world in the very north of Germany. It's just a test, but should everything go according to plan, gigantic windmills may soon dot the waters off the German coast.

The hard part is getting it there. Once it is erected, the enormous rotor blades will reach a height of 155 meters (510 feet), meaning that the facility, even when broken down into its component parts, is too large to be transported by land. Instead, it is being moved by ship from the port city of Bremerhaven to its new home in Westre, near Germany's border with Denmark…http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,606974,00.html

Those are gonna be some pretty high blades:eek:

Wonder if keeping them the normal size but cheaper might be better?

The taller they are, the more people might complain about the sight of them

Well, that's what the tests are for;). I'm sure they'll weight the cost benefits of one tall turbine, power produced and space utilized vs a smaller scaled version.

6MW is about 100% larger than the largest FPL has installed.

When I was tooling past all the windfarms out west I was struck
by how tiny and fragile the turbines look relative to the hills.
Like fine cilia attached to some much larger surface. I was
trying to come up with some way to describe a feeling I got that
we need to think bigger in that arena, but without destroying
the landscape in the process. We *should* be capable of more
large-scale engineering that is also clean and elegant. Wind
turbines in general are a really good start. The naysayers who
keep saying they're ugly can, well, just bugger off.
.
_H*

The naysayers who
keep saying they're ugly can, well, just bugger off.

Agreed. There are a bunch on a "mountain" range near Mrs. Khan's parents (Cavan, Ireland), and I think they look lovely (subjective, I know). Especially compared to smokestacks and whatever else they take the place of.

Wow, Germany took the "Go big or go home" thing literally!

One more benefit to going larger is the wildlife impact (no pun intended) is lessened. Big slow blades are much easier for birds to get out of the way of.

Its the little tiny fast spinning turbines the animal-huggin' folk have trouble with.

While surfing the Internets lately, I have found it odd to see a strange coalition of whacko leftists and wing-nut rightists opposing wind power.

I can't speak to whether or not wind power is truly cost-effective just yet (does anyone have any links on that?) but it seems to me that anything that basically generates 'free' power from the wind and sun is a step forward.

And I agree - I find the wind farms off the Pa. Turnpike to be aesthetically pleasing, too. (Maybe I'd feel differently if they were literally in my back yard, and I found the noise annoying, I will grant that.)