Multi-Rotors; A Solution to 20 MW and Beyond?

In up-scaling conventional, single rotor wind turbines, increases in weight (volume related) tend to outstrip benefits from increase in energy capture (area related). The multi-rotor concept turns this disadvantage on its head and exploits the area to weight advantage of small rotors. Other advantages of multi-rotors include standardization of components leading to cost reduction, better distributed and generally reduced system loads, enhanced control possibilities and improved logistics for assembly and maintenance.A 20 MW multi rotor system is compared with a notional 20 MW conventional wind turbine and also 4 x 5 MW state-of-the-art offshore wind turbines.