Abstract:
German engineering company GICON has completed the raising of an ultra-high wind turbine in Schipkau, Brandenburg.
The total height of the unit is 365 meters, and the center of the hub is 300 meters from the ground. Calculated based on the highest point of the blades, it is called the world's tallest wind power generation facility by the project team and the second tallest building structure in Germany. What is set here is an altitude record, not a power generation record: the test unit has a rated power of 3.8 MW, which is far lower than the rated power of a 26 MW offshore wind turbine prototype from China Dongfang Electric.
The pilot was built by GICON for the German Federal Breakthrough Innovation Agency SPRIND. The core design is to install conventional wind turbines on a steel truss support structure and a retractable inner tower. The construction team first assembled the heavy components at a lower height, and then used a special steel strand lifting system to lift the inner tower to the operating position and fix it, thus avoiding complete reliance on large cranes to lift the nacelle and blades directly to a height of 300 meters. The project party said that the expansion plan may allow the existing wind farm to add a layer of ultra-tall wind turbines without the need to open a large new site. Based on preliminary potential assessment, GICON believes that existing wind farms in Germany can install up to about 4,000 such towers, but this is still a potential estimate, not the number that has been approved for construction.
The goal of raising the hub height is to take advantage of stronger, more stable, and less intermittent high-altitude winds. GICON said that compared with conventional wind turbines of the same impeller diameter, this design may bring about twice the power generation in the future, and envisions subsequent models with a rated power exceeding 7 MW. However, this 3.8-MW pilot unit has not yet entered the formal operation stage, and finishing work such as internal electrical wiring is still in progress; the project team plans to officially launch it in November. Therefore, the so-called power generation gain currently belongs to the designer's prediction, and the actual annual power generation, operating cost, structural durability and maintenance difficulty still need to be verified by long-term testing.
The lifting operation of the unit to reach a height of 365 meters was completed on September 29. GICON plans to further develop a wind farm containing three to five ultra-high wind turbines based on pilot operation data, and formulate a commercialization plan with SPRIND; the company hopes to promote mass production as soon as possible, but has not announced an exact timetable for mature commercial models. If the tower can prove economical in actual operations, it may add options to areas with weak wind resources or limited land, and may also allow existing wind farms to expand through an "upper and lower two-story" layout.
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