Electrek: Here’s why the first commercial spiral-welded wind turbine tower is a game-changer
The first commercial spiral-welded wind turbine tower has begun operation – here’s what it is and why it matters.
The spiral-welded wind turbine tower was built by GE Renewable Energy and wind turbine producer Keystone Tower Systems. And after years of collaborating with the US Department of Energy, they installed the 89-meter-tall (292-foot-tall) tower on the GE 2.8-127 wind turbine.
The US Department of Energy explains what spiral welding is:
Spiral welding is when the steel used to make the tower is curled into a cylinder; essentially, these towers are built from meters-wide steel plates.
The technique requires only one machine to construct a tower section, and it can produce towers up to twice as tall and 10 times faster than conventional towers.
And here’s why spiral-welded wind turbine towers are going to be impactful: Keystone says it can make the lightest, lowest-cost, and most structurally optimized towers in the wind turbine industry.