The United States develops the world's largest cargo aircraft designed to transport giant 90 meters of wind turbines. This project promises to become a revolutionary step in the field of renewable energy, where wind energy plays a key role.
Given the forecasts of European energy companies, by 2025, wind energy can provide about 10 percent of world electricity production. And by 2050, most of the 140 countries plan to move completely to renewable energy sources, with most of the wind.
The development of wind energy requires the creation of powerful wind turbines with long blades that reduce the cost of electricity production. However, transporting such long blades is a difficult task, especially for land projects.
The American Energy Startup Radia, under the direction of Mark Lundstroma from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presented a new solution for transportation of overall goods - Windrunner transport aircraft. This aircraft, with a length of 108.5 meters, 24 meters high and 79.5 meters high, has a load capacity of 80 tons and can carry wind turbine blades from 45 to 91 meters long and up to 35 tons.
Windrunner development has the potential not only to support the development of wind power on land, but also to find use in other industries, including the military sphere. The commercial production of this aircraft is expected to begin by the end of 2027.
The Windrunner project is a significant step in the field of transportation of large cargoes, including blades for wind turbines. This will allow the wind turbines with longer blades not only in marine but also in land projects, which will significantly increase the efficiency of electricity production from wind.
According to Radia team, the first client - a private electricity manufacturer - has already purchased a project with a capacity of one gigawat in Nevada, USA. This indicates a great interest in a new type of transport for wind energy projects.
