Mass. turbine designer thinks big

Source: Boston Globe

A Massachusetts company says it will develop the world’s highest-capacity wind turbines, hoping to capitalize on an expected boom in offshore wind farm construction.

American Superconductor Corp.’s SeaTitan turbine will use high-temperature superconductor wire manufactured at its plant in Devens, which employs 200 people.

American Superconductor officials said they anticipate the offshore market for large-capacity wind turbines to reach $1 billion by 2016. Recent announcements of large offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom and China fueled their optimism, they said, and they believe the United States could eventually follow suit.

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The company has been working on SeaTitan for two years, and has about a dozen employees here and in Austria who are dedicated to the project. “We expect to license the SeaTitan within months, certainly by the end of 2010,’’ Yurek said.

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Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/05/05/mass_turbine_designer_thinks_big/

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Interesting article.
Sea Titan website: http://www.amsc.com/products/applications/windEnergy/seatitan.html
Via http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/05/american-superconductor-sea-titan-10-mw.html

Just saying.

:)

... "officials said, allowing the company to design turbines that are as much as 50 percent smaller and lighter than those of the same capacity built with standard technology. That’s especially important for offshore wind farms, where subsurface support structures are often an even larger part of the cost than the wind turbines themselves."