In Depth: High-wire act is taking wind power to new scales

Danish turbine developer Edmond Muller is in the early stages of detailing a potentially revolutionary “multi-deca-megawatt” concept that would dwarf the largest designs for the coming generation of European wind farms.

Featuring a three-bladed, 300-metre-diameter rotor atop a 250-metre-tall tower to create a swept area of 70,685 square metres, the 30MW Adaptable Hybrid Aerogenerator (AHA) is testimony to bigger being better.

A turbine of this unprecedented size would also have to deal with titanic forces and loads. To handle these, Muller has taken inspiration from many sources — even revisiting groundbreaking designs such as Johannes Juul’s iconic turbine erected at Vester Egesborg, Denmark, in the 1950s, which used a system of stay cables to support the tower.

“The AHA is a unique…

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