6 MW "Haliade" (World record) 150 offshore wind turbines will be build in France by 2020

In July 2011, the French government launched a call for tender to install 3 GW of offshore wind power off of France’s Atlantic and Channel coastlines by 2015, and a total of 6 GW by 2020. The projects considered will be expected to produce electricity at a reasonable cost, develop new industrial centres and networks that generate jobs, and protect the environment and maritime activities.

The candidates sent in their proposals in January 2012. Alstom is the exclusive provider of the EDF Energies Nouvelles, Dong Energy, Nass and Wind and WPD consortium, which has proposed wind farm development for four of the five sites set up by the French government, namely: Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Brieuc, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp.
These projects will be accompanied by a job-creating industrial development plan in which Alstom envisions the set-up of up tofour plants dedicated to component production and assembly of 6 MW Haliade 150 offshore wind turbines in the port areas of St. Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) and Cherbourg (Manche).

The candidates will be preselected in April 2012 and retained in 2013. The facilities will come into service between 2015 and 2020.

source

This 6 MW wind turbine is the new world-record size:
- Rotor diameter: 150m/492ft
- Blade Lenght: 73,5m/241ft
- Hub height: 100m/328ft
- Total height: 176m/577ft (1/2 Eiffel Tower)
- Nacelle total weight: 400 metric ton/400.000kg/1.071.691pounds
- One turbine can furnish electricity for 8000 people
- 500 to 600 of these wind turbines will be built
- The whole achieved wind farm will produce 3000MW (+/- 3 nuclear reactors or 2 EPR reactors)
- France now has 58 reactors in 19 nuclear power plants. So 58 * 450 (estimation of the wind turbines number needed to replace 1 reactor) = 26,100 offshore wind turbines are needed to replace the entire French nuclear power plants.



Technical PDF
Alstom source

Alstom advertising video:



Some photos of this outstanding wind turbine:













Off shore wind turbines pictures source

6MW permanent magnet wind turbine! I had no idea the PM ones could be built that large. A refreshing change from the more traditional designs. Ideal for off shore as I'd guess maintenance would be easier with fewer parts to fail. I like how they've done the voltage control as this is normally done by control of field magnet current, instead their using a static converter on generator output, substituting electronic complexity for mechanical. Variable speed does help efficiency though. Looks good.

Apparently the oil lobby in France is nowhere
near as strong as US oil interests .

reply to post by elevenaugust


Now we know why the Chinese are hoarding rare earths and the rest of the world is griping about it. Within a few years, the Australian mines will start up and the rare earths will be even less rare.

reply to post by pteridine

Yes, that's a good reason to believe in alternative energies.
The cost to built huge offshore wind turbines is enormous (I've heard it will cost something like 30 billions for the whole offshore farm...), however the maintenance cost have nothing to do with those of the nuclear power plant.