The next big thing in wind: Slow wind, huge turbines

Some wind turbine manufacturers are designing huge wind turbines turning at slower speeds, in an effort to harvest the more common low wind speeds. Siemens, Vestas, and Nordex all recently released new, large wind turbines directed at low-wind markets. Last year, General Electric released its largest turbine for low-wind use.

The latest Siemens model, the SWT-2.3-101, has a 101m blade diameter and cuts in at 4m/s wind speed.

Pictured left, these blades are 38m long. The Nordex N100's turbine blades are 48m long, 10m longer!

The Vestas V112 turbine (see PDF Specifications) is a giant with 54.6m blades and a tower height of either 85m or 119m. It cuts in at 3m/s.

Source: CNet.com