by Agence France-Presse
OSLO—Norway plans to build the world’s most powerful wind turbine, hoping the new technology will increase the profitability of costly offshore wind farms, partners behind the project said Friday.
With a rotor diameter of 475 feet and a height of 533 feet, the 10-megawatt prototype will be roughly three times more powerful than ordinary wind turbines currently in place, said Enova, a public agency owned by Norway’s petroleum and oil industry ministry.
The world’s largest wind turbine will be built by Norwegian company Sway with the objective of developing a technology that will result in higher energy generation for offshore wind power. It will first be tested on land in Oeygarden, southwestern Norway, for two years.
The gain in power over current turbines will be obtained partly by reducing the weight and the number of moving parts in the turbine.
According to the NTB news agency, the prototype will cost $67.5 million to build and could supply power to 2,000 homes.
“We are aiming to install it in 2011,” Enova’s head of new technology, Kjell Olav Skoelsvik, told AFP.
Enova pledged $23 million to build the prototype.
“It is milestone in the efforts to develop the future’s wind power,” Norway’s energy minister Terje Riis-Johansen said in a statement.
Environmental groups have been highly critical of Norway’s government for not having invested enough in wind power. The Scandinavian country is one of the world’s top oil and gas producers, but obtains most of its own energy through hydroelectric power.
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