While the United States has excellent wind resources over much of the country, some locations are less windy and, as a result, have not seen much wind energy development. Harnessing wind power in a cost-effective manner has long been a challenge in these areas. But new technologies could make it possible to profitably capture winds blowing higher above the ground across much of the United States.
Wind turbines have been increasing in tower (or hub) height (from 30 meters [m] to 90 m) and rotor diameter (from 30 m to 125 m) from the 1990s to the 2020s, with power capacity also growing from 0.2 megawatts (MW) to 3 MW. Near-commercial innovations can produce turbines with tip heights taller than the top of the Washington Monument (169 m tall) when a rotor with a 150-m diameter is attached to a…
Read the full article originally published at cleantechnica.com.