The race to roll out ‘super-sized’ wind turbines is on

In the not too distant future, waters 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard will be home to a potentially crucial part of America’s energy future: the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1, a project that’s been described as “the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.”

Construction of Vineyard Wind 1 started last year, and the facility will use 13 MW versions of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X turbines. With a height of up to 260 meters (853 feet), a rotor diameter of 220 meters and 107-meter blades, the Haliade-X is part of a new generation of turbines set to be installed in the years ahead.

In addition to GE, other companies are getting in on the big turbine act. In Aug. 2021, China’s MingYang Smart Energy released details of a 264-meter tall design that will use 118-meter blades.

Elsewhere, Danish firm Vestas is working on a 15-megawatt turbine that will have a rotor diameter of 236 meters and 115.5-meter blades while Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is developing a turbine that incorporates 108-meter blades and a rotor diameter of 222 meters.

The reasons for these increases in size are clear. When it comes to height, the U.S. Department of Energy says the towers of turbines “are becoming taller to capture more energy, since winds generally increase as altitudes increase.”

A bigger rotor diameter isn’t just for show either, with the DOE noting that they “allow wind turbines to sweep more area, capture more wind, and produce more electricity.”

It’s much the same with blades. The DOE says longer blades can “capture more of the available wind than shorter blades—even in areas with relatively less wind.”

Having huge turbines arrive on the market is all well and good, but their sheer scale may pose a number of mid-to-long term challenges for the sector, creating pinch points that could cause headaches.

Shipshape

Take installations. In February, research from Rystad Energy honed in on some of the possible issues related to the ships used to install offshore wind turbines out at sea.

Not counting China, it said wind turbines had seen what it called “a growth spurt in recent years, rising from an average of 3 megawatts (MW) in 2010 to 6.5 MW today.”

This shift, it explained, was likely to be sustained. “Turbines larger than 8 MW accounted for just 3% of global installations between 2010 and 2021, but that percentage is forecast to surge to 53% by 2030.”

The above data relates to offshore wind turbines only. According to the energy research and business intelligence firm, demand for vessels able to install larger offshore turbines is set to outstrip supply by the year 2024.

Operators, it said, “will have to invest in new vessels or upgrade existing ones to install the super-sized turbines that are expected to become the norm by the end of the decade, or the pace of offshore wind installations could slow down.”

“When turbines were smaller, installation could be handled by the first-generation fleet of offshore wind vessels or converted jackups from the oil and gas industry,” Martin Lysne, senior analyst for rigs and vessels at Rystad Energy, said in a statement at the time.

With operators continuing to favor bigger turbines, Lysne said a “new generation of purpose-built vessels” would be needed to satisfy demand.

These specialized vessels don’t come cheap. U.S. firm Dominion Energy, for example, is heading up a consortium building the 472-foot Charybdis, which will cost around $500 million and be able to install current turbines and next-generation ones of 12 MW or greater. More vessels like the Charybdis will be needed in the future as turbines grow.

“Out of the current fleet of purpose-built vessels, only a handful of units can install 10 MW+ turbines, and none are currently able to install 14 MW+ turbines,” according to Rystad Energy’s analysis. “This will change towards 2025 as newbuilds start to be delivered and existing vessels get crane upgrades.” 

Ports

The ships that transport and install turbines will be important in the years ahead, but the ports where they dock are another area where investment and upgrades will likely be needed to cater to wind energy’s growth.

In a comment sent to CNBC via email, Rystad Energy’s Lysne described port infrastructure as being “very important” from a vessel perspective.

Going forward, it would appear that a lot of money will be needed. Last May, a report from industry body WindEurope said Europe’s ports would have to invest 6.5 billion euros (around $7.07 billion) by 2030 in…