Enormous Wind Turbine Being Built In China

Alan Coffey, who writes "The Digital Federalist", highlights this design for an enormous wind turbine being built in China.

Alan writes, "the claims are breathtaking," as are the specifications, reported by "Inhabit.com":Here's how it works: the vertically oriented blades of the wind turbine are suspended in the air above the base of the machine, replacing the need for ball bearings. The turbine uses "full-permanent" magnets, not electromagnets - therefore, it does not require electricty to run. The full-permanent magnet system employs neodymium ("rare earth") magnets and there is no energy loss through friction. This also helps reduce maintenance costs and increases the lifespan of the generator.

Maglev wind turbines have several advantages over conventional wind turbines. For instance, they're able to use winds with starting speeds as low as 1.5 meters per second (m/s). Also, they could operate in winds exceeding 40 m/s. Currently, the largest conventional wind turbines in the world produce only five megawatts of power. However, one large maglev wind turbine could generate one gigawatt of clean power, enough to supply energy to 750,000 homes. It would also increase generation capacity by 20% over conventional wind turbines and decrease operational costs by 50%. If that isn't enough, the maglev wind turbines will be operational for about 500 years!Extravagant claims indeed. One of these monsters would provide more than the power needs of Delaware. So could one work for Delaware? It's unlikely.

This new wind turbine don't appear to be designed for offshore wind power, and thus would be best suited for the wind swept prairies of Texas, for instance. Connecting one to the grid would be a challenge. Each of these would have to be matched to a sufficiently large load to make engineering and economic sense and be matched by other energy sources. So for those who advise passing on the proposed offshore wind farm for Delaware and waiting for the next big thing, this is it-and it wouldn't fit here.

These behemoths could be more easily attached to the grid in China, which is growing by more than 12 million residents a year. To accommodate these millions, China has embarked on a program to build entirely new cities from scratch every year.