Wind turbines have been getting bigger all the time. Larger turbines have real advantages. They can operate at lower speeds so they can be deployed in more places. They capture more wind, so they make more power. Large wind turbines can have blades more than 200 feet long and even larger ones are on the way. An offshore wind farm in China has turbines with 400-foot blades.
Giant wind turbines face a thorny problem: getting the blades to where they are to be installed. The enormous blades can’t be easily shipped across aging roads and bridges. Tunnels are too narrow, bridges are too low, and roads can be too tight to allow turns when transporting these massive turbine parts. Some developers have actually had to build special roads for wind projects.
For nearly a decade, a Boulder Colorado company called Radia has been working on what would be the world’s largest plane. The WindRunner aircraft would have a dozen times the cargo volume of a Boeing 747. The WindRunner will be 356 feet long and 79 feet tall. While its primary purpose would be transporting wind turbine blades, the plane could also be used to aid the military or businesses that are thinking really big. Product developers often don’t even try to invent really big things because there is no way to transport them. Radia expects the WindRunner to be rolled out before the end of the decade.
The wind industry is currently facing strong opposition from the Trump administration, but wind energy is not going away and bigger and better wind turbines will ultimately be built and will have to be transported.
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Building the World’s Biggest Plane to Help Catch the Wind
Photo, October 10, 2013, courtesy of Allan Der via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio
