China has installed the most powerful wind power plant with a height of 60 floors

Record-holder among wind giants: China installs the world's most powerful offshore wind turbine at 26 megawatts

Chinese energy giant Dongfang Electric has made a real breakthrough in renewable energy by installing a prototype offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 26 megawatts. The new colossus has surpassed the previous record holder – Siemens Gamesa's 21.5-megawatt turbine from Denmark, reports Electrek.

The grandiose prototype, unparalleled in the world in terms of power and dimensions, was placed on a special testing and certification site. The scale of the new product is impressive: the rotor diameter with blades exceeds 310 meters, and the hub height reaches 185 meters, which is comparable to a 60-story skyscraper. Recently, Dongfang delivered the turbine's nacelle – the heaviest in its class – to the installation site along with three giant blades.

The engineering masterpiece is designed to operate in areas where wind speeds are 8 meters per second and higher. At an average wind speed of 10 meters per second, one such turbine can generate a colossal 100 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually – enough to power 55,000 households. Using this installation will reduce coal consumption by 30,000 tons and decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 80,000 tons. According to the manufacturer, the turbine is designed to withstand hurricane-force winds up to 17 on the extended Beaufort scale, which corresponds to a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

In May of this year, Dongfang announced the successful completion of static tests of the turbine blades. The installation is currently undergoing fatigue testing (a process of evaluating a material's ability to withstand repeated cycles of loading or stress, – "Gazeta.Ru"), which may last up to a year before the giant turbine receives full certification.