A typical 2.5 MW (Million Watts) wind
turbine is a 60 – 70 meters tall tower
with a rotor of 84 meters in diameter on
top of it

On land, good wind sites have average
wind speeds of 7.0 meters per second

At sea, average wind speeds are 8.5
meters per second and higher
The turbine generates 900 kW of power with winds of
7.0 m/s – capacity factor of 36% (CF=36%)
At 8.5 m/s winds the turbine generates 1500 KW
– capacity factor of 60% (CF=60%)
At 13 m/s winds the turbine generates 2.5 MW
– the nameplate capacity (CF=100%)
At 25 m/s the rotor is
stopped to prevent damage
Land Based
  • 100 MW land-based wind farm in the Great Plains (nameplate capacity) consists of 40 turbines, 2.5 MW each, and generates 36 MW
    of power on an average day

  • 12,000 miles of new high-tension transmission lines are needed to deliver this power to major consumption centers (Source: 20%
    Wind Energy by 2030, US Department of Energy, May 2008)

Offshore
  • 100 MW wind farm at sea with 40 turbines of 2.5 MW each will generate 60 MW of power on an average day – a 66% increase over a
    land based wind farm: 24 turbines at sea do the job of 40 turbines on land!

  • The distance of offshore wind farms to consumption centers is 20-200 miles – not thousands of miles away as with wind farms in the
    Great Plains
Offshore
Land
Based
Turbine Basics
©2013 HighSeasWind