Denmark hosts the world’s tallest wind turbine

It’s also the world’s most powerful

Denmark, a country well known as a pioneer and a powerhouse in the field of wind electricity generation, has once again entered the headlines with news about the recent installation of a new Vestas model wind turbine – reportedly the tallest in the world.

The power generator stands 280 metres tall above the fields at the Østerild Test Center for large wind turbines in Western Jutland. This height makes it a giant in a world of giants, and for objective comparison, it is almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which reaches 330 metres with its spire.

What’s more, the Vestas V236-15.0 MW offshore turbine has been described as the world’s most powerful by Electrek. The facility is a prototype, meaning it was raised at the test centre in order to check its viability and capacity before being launched onto the market.

Some impressive stats

Vestas’ V236-15.0 MW has a rotor diameter of 236 meters and a wind-swept area of 43,743 square meters, also the industry’s largest parameters.

The 115.5-meter blades were manufactured at Vestas’ blade factory in Nakskov, Denmark.

A single Vestas V236-15.0 MW is capable of producing 80 GWh per year. That’s enough to power around 20,000 European households and save more than 38,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of removing 25,000 passenger cars from the road annually.

The giant wind turbine will make its official market debut next year at Denmark’s Frederikshavn wind farm.

It’s also been selected for New Jersey’s Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm as well as New York’s Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 projects.

However, it probably won’t stay the world’s most powerful wind turbine for long, as ever more powerful wind turbines are being developed, most recently in China.