The typhoon-class 8.0-168 machine, a 168-metre-rotor down-wind design featuring pitch-controlled blades and a medium-speed drive train with pioneering electrically-excited synchronous generator, builds on the Hamburg-based company's 3MW and 6MW designs.

"The old arguments agains two-bladed turbines – noise levels and visual impact – fall away particularly offshore," Aerodyn president Sönke Siegfriedsen tells Recharge.

"And there are many advantages: you can assemble the whole turbine including the blades in a harbour, shuttle it out to site by barge and mount it on the tower – the installation is much quicker."

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