Renewable energies | The race for gigantism

In all four corners of the world, projects are being carried out to produce renewable energies. Wind and solar farm programs compete in ambition. The race for gigantism is launched to provide the carbon-free energy that each country needs while limiting its greenhouse gas emissions.

A disproportionate solar power plant

Imagine solar panels completely covering Île Bizard… The emirate of Abu Dhabi is preparing to commission a solar power plant of a size comparable to that of this island west of Montreal. The photovoltaic panels will cover more than 20 square kilometers, in the middle of the desert, 35 kilometers from the capital of the emirate. The Al Dhafra solar power plant will have an output of 2.1 gigawatts when operational. This represents more than three times the power generated by the Gentilly-2 nuclear power plant before its decommissioning. The Emirati solar power plant will supply 160,000 homes with carbon-free energy in this country of 10 million inhabitants.

A gigantic floating wind turbine!

The Norwegian firm World Wide Wind is working on the design of a floating wind turbine, 400 meters high, nearly twice the height of Mount Royal… and 19 meters higher than the Empire State Building in New York. This gigantic wind turbine will be able to provide a power of 40 megawatts thanks to its original design. The vertical axis wind turbine has two sets of blades, allowing its power to be doubled. It can work with wind from any direction. No risk of seeing this wind turbine go offshore: cables keep it moored in its location.

Wind turbines as far as the eye can see

The wind farm in Gansu, China, will reach a total capacity of 20 gigawatts in the next few years. This project will further consolidate China’s leading position in the world production of wind power. If part of the project is already in service, 7,000 wind turbines will be deployed in a depopulated area, near the Gobi Desert, in northwestern China. The counterpart of this remoteness is that it was necessary to build a line of more than 2,300 kilometers to connect the wind farm to the electricity grid and thus put all this energy to good use.

An ocean of wind turbines

South Korea has decided to take steps to become carbon neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, the country will invest 52 billion dollars in a huge wind farm at sea. Off the town of Sinan, wind turbines will produce 8.2 gigawatts of power from 2030, the equivalent of six nuclear reactors. This wind farm alone will take part in half of the country’s wind power production in 2030. During the decade, South Korea intends to multiply by 10 its energy production from wind turbines.