Big Wind Just Got Bigger! REpower Installs 1st 6 MW Turbine

If you've ever had a chance to visit a wind farm in the last 10 years, you've no doubt been impressed by the sheer scale of these beautiful machines whishing through the wind making wonderfully clean electricity. SMUD is finishing installation of our Solano Phase 3 windfarm this spring, for a total capacity of 225 MW, and individual turbines capable of producing as much as 3 MW a piece. At full load that's enough to power 3,000 homes per turbine! With blades 90 meters in diameter, its hard to imagine these turbines getting any bigger.

But leave it to the Belgians to one-up us. They've just finished installation of the 1st of 48 offshore turbines, each with a rated capacity of just over 6 MW. That's enough to power 6,000 homes. With a diameter of 126 meters, the blades are too big for on-shore installations, so we likely won't be seeing them here in California any time soon. However, if you'd like a tour, check out REpower's interactive page that lets you see inside the turbine and explains each of the key components. For more info on the installation, CleanTechnica has a nice summary.

In the meantime, if you want to get up close, take a drive through the beautiful hills of Rio Vista to see the biggest North America has to offer.