There's a Wind Turbine On the Horizon With Blades the Size of Trump Tower

merbs writes: Imagine a stretch of open ocean, populated by a swath of wind turbines with skyscraper-sized blades, whipping into the gusts like enormous palm trees. The vision is partly terrifying, partly inspiring, and being taken entirely seriously by the federal government and one of our top research laboratories. [Sandia National Labs, in an effort led by the University of Virginia] has unveiled the preliminary design for a new offshore wind turbine with 650-foot turbine blades. That, as its announcement points out, is twice the size of an American football field. It's also roughly the size of Trump Tower in New York.

Comments

Oblig XKCD

[rsborg]

Is there nothing that doesn't somehow tie back to XKCD?
https://xkcd.com/556/

Seriously, this is cool - but the Trump name drop is as bad as apple-baiting.

Re:The new rulers of this site...

[alvinrod]

If you had bothered to read the article, you would have seen that they were making that comparison in order to take a jab at Trump:

It's also roughly the size of Trump Tower in New York, maybe a more relevant reference point here, since we're talking scale and bluster.

Re:Pity the birds

[Anonymous Coward]

Large turbines spin slower, and hence will not do any chopping. Birds can fly around it, although some won't and it will be on par with a stationary skyscrapers that kill plenty of birds too.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[ClickOnThis]

Imagine a stretch of open ocean, populated by a swath of wind turbines with skyscraper-sized blades

Now imagine those wind turbines getting hit by a hurricane.

And now imagine them self-stowing into a "secure" configuration, until the hurricane passes.