The three 83.5-metre prototype blades for Samsung Heavy Industries’ (SHI) giant 7MW offshore wind turbine have begun the trip from SSP Technology in Denmark to the installation site in Scotland.
The blades – which are the longest yet devised by the industry, outstripping Vestas’ 80-metre units for the V164 – made the journey on heavy load trucks from SSP’s Kirkeby factory to the port of Esbjerg before for shipment onward by sea to the Fife Energy Park demo site in Methil.
Each slimline carbon and glass-fibre hybrid blade, built around a patented spar-design, has a root diameter of 4.2-metres and weighs 30 tonnes. Fully assembled with the blades, the Samsung 7MW will have a rotor diameter of 171.2 metres.
After the field trials at Methil, the blades are to be fabricated for use in Korea’s first offshore wind energy project: SHI’s 84MW 12 turbine development in the Korea Straits, targeted to start-up in 2015.
Quelle:www.rechargenews.com/wind/europe_africa/article1333205.ece