World record for energy transition
Highest wind turbine in Gaildorf – It’s official: Since October 2017, Gaildorf – near Stuttgart – is now home of the world’s tallest wind turbine. With a hub height of 178 meters and a total height of 246.5 meters, this wind turbine sets new standards for the energy transition. Furthermore, it is part of a unique storage concept – the water battery.
The wind turbine is part of a wind farm that consists of four wind turbines with hub heights from at least 155 meters. Equipped with powerful 3.4-megawatt (MW) generators from GE, they will begin supplying clean energy to the German power grid in spring 2018. The combination with a modern pumped-storage power plant enables a more efficient production and storage of renewable energy than ever before.
This new storage concept utilizes the foundation of the wind turbine as a water reservoir, which results in a 40 meter increase in the height of the turbine. This is hugely beneficial since each additional meter of hub height added to a wind turbine increases the annual energy yield by 0.5 to 1 percent. High hub heights mean less wind turbulence and significantly better wind yield, especially for inland locations with weak wind conditions.
