The wind industry trends in a nutshell - are moving toward larger turbines to take advantage of the economy-of-scale, along with greater reliability and efficiency to bring down the cost of wind-generated power. The wind industry's goal is to rival the cost of electricity generated from natural gas. Launching larger turbines is almost a race between the OEMs. Just a couple years ago, three companies announced 10-MW turbines on their drawing boards, while one study of the day suggested a 12-MW turbine was possible with the current technology. The 10-MW units have since disappeared from the news because OEMs learned that jumping to 10 MW is a much longer leap than anticipated. Instead, they are happy to accept kudos for 6 and 7 MW turbines. Vestas has announced an 8-MW unit with a drivetrain and blades ready for tests this year.
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