The world's biggest storms, which ravage the open seas or flatten buildings on land, have long worried wind farm developers. Operators have increasingly adopted turbines designed to withstand tropical cyclones. One of the latest examples is a "typhoon-proof" floating wind turbine that will soon help power an offshore oil rig in China. According to manufacturer MingYang Smart Energy, this 7.25 megawatt (MW) turbine can withstand wind speeds of 134mph for 10 minutes. This turbine was installed at a facility 136 km off the coast of the island of Hainan. MingYang did not respond to the BBC's request for comment, but theirs is not the first turbine designed to counter such an attack. In 2021, US firm GE received typhoon certification for its massive Haliade-X turbine. It is fixed, non-floating, and has a capacity of up to 13 MW.
Rapid growth in the wind power industry is pushing turbines to their limits, and some are questioning whether speed-to-market is wise. While components such as turbine blades are remarkably strong, they are not indestructible. And the forces of nature, especially at sea, are notoriously unpredictable, so there's pressure to prove that wind turbines are truly hurricane-ready. Tropical cyclones – often called typhoons or hurricanes depending on location – are a familiar threat in certain parts of the world, including the Gulf of Mexico or much of Southeast Asia. Such storms can produce wind speeds over 100mph. The strongest one-minute sustained winds recorded at 215mph were created by Hurricane Patricia in the eastern Pacific in 2015.
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65261147
