Video: Offshore Wind Farm, From Under The Blades

October 12th, 2014 by Zachary Shahan

On my wonderful cleantech tour of Germany last week*, one of the most interesting personal experiences was taking a boat out to Baltic I, an offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea. It was about 2 hours each way, and we all got at least a little sea sick (some worse than others), but it was well worth the trip and we even got to go directly underneath functioning a wind turbine. Here’s a video from the trip, followed by pics:

Note that all of the loud sounds that you hear up until ~1:12 minutes in are from the boat. After the boat turns off, you can hear the whoosh of the wind turbine we were sitting beneath, but that was really only audible right underneath them. Even right next to them or in front of them I couldn’t hear that.

*My trip around Germany was sponsored by Germany Trade & Invest. But I was not required to write anything nice about Germany or the projects or companies we visited, of course.

Here are some more stories from the trip:

ubitricity Can Cut EV Charging System Costs “90%”

Why Utilities Don’t Invest More In Solar (VIDEO)

Is This Company Set To Monopolize A Critical Energy

The Only Grid-Independent Village In The World?

Tesla Opens Stores In Berlin & Hamburg

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: Baltic 1, Germany

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Kyle Field

Very neat! I’m surprised to hear (or not) how quiet they are…especially in an area where noise isn’t as much of a concern (for humans, at least). I imagine the noise would/could impact sea life so it’s that much better that they aren’t noisy. Thanks for sharing what you saw in Deutschland!
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  I was curious how the sound would compare, but basically, if you’re not right under a wind turbine (on land or on the water), it’s pretty dern hard to hear anything… and when you do hear something, it’s basically just a super soft woosh.
  
  The “noise issue” gets really ridiculous once you’ve visited some of these.
  - Kyle Field
    
    I’m sure older models weren’t as quiet so there may be some residual from that.
    There’s also plenty of FUD being used against new energy sources which works surprisingly well. I’m continually blown away by how afraid some people are of new tech, especially when comparing it to older tech. Solar panel disposal/dumping is bad…but compared to the mess coal makes both in mining and in the burning of it, it’s not on the same level.
    - http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
      
      Agreed, agreed, ditto, and agreed.
http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

Must have been impressive, Zachary. When I have stood right below a ~600kW wind turbine on land (in Hull, MA), it made barely more noise than the wind itself.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  It was amazing. One of my best cleantech project visits yet. The turbines were actually quite small. We were hoping for 6 MW turbines. But now have a good reference point.
  
  The “noise issue” gets really ridiculous once you’ve visited some of these. Couldn’t hear 7.5 MW onshore wind turbines at all from very nearby.