World's smallest, largest, toughest wind turbines

Wind turbines are coming in an increasing variety of sizes, capacities and styles, so we here at Greenbang thought we’d take a look at some of the most extreme:

Smallest

The Blow Light toy (right), with a six-centimetre-diameter rotor blade, takes the title of World’s Smallest Wind Generator, according to Nigel’s Eco Store;

Largest

Enercon’s E-126 turbine (left) in Emden, Germany, lays claim to the largest wind turbine. With a rotor diameter of 126 metres, each turbine has a potential generating capacity of more than 7 megawatts;

Toughest

Areva’s MULTBRID M5000 (right) is specially designed to stand up to the harshest of offshore conditions. Installed in the waters off Bremerhaven, each turbine’s tower has a 60-metre concrete base and 200-tonne housing to keep the workings enclosed for minimum maintenance. Despite this, each 5-megawatt turbine has reinforced carbon-fibre blades for a “remarkably low tower-head weight”;

Most Buoyant
Principle Power’s WindFloat technology (left) provides a floating platform for deep-offshore wind-energy installations. The company recently signed an agreement with Energias de Portugal for the phased development of a deep-water offshore wind power project sited off the coast of Portugal;

Most Capitalistic

WePOWER is using PacWind’s vertical turbines for a concept it calls Windvertising™ (right), in which the spinning turbine blades generate a “flip-book-style” moving image that can serve the function as a billboard whilst at the same time generating wind energy.