Radia, a company founded in 2016 by engineer Mark Lundstrom, announced the development of the WindRunner, a gigantic cargo plane that could shake up the wind energy industry. Designed to transport the largest land-based wind turbines to remote areas, the aircraft will become the largest and heaviest flying machine ever built when operational.
Removing a major obstacle to the energy transition
WindRunner was designed to solve one of the major problems of onshore wind energy: the transportation of large wind turbines. The latter are more efficient in terms of energy production, but they are often too large to be transported via traditional transmission networks, limiting their use to offshore installations. WindRunner would make it possible to overcome these constraints by directly transporting these giant wind turbines to production sites, even the most isolated.
Radia is tackling a central issue in the global energy transition: decarbonization. Onshore wind energy, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), is expected to represent between 20% and 40% of global energy production by 2050. But the size of modern wind turbines, whose blades can reach 70 meters long, complicates their transport. Currently, most onshore wind turbines are limited in size, as they must be transported by road or rail, modes of transport not well suited to components of these dimensions.
This is where WindRunner comes in, a transport aircraft capable of solving these logistical problems. With a fuselage length of 108 meters and a volumetric load capacity of 8,200 cubic meters, the aircraft will greatly exceed the capabilities of existing cargo aircraft such as the Boeing 747-400F or the Antonov An-124.
The dimensions of the device are specially adapted to transport wind turbine blades. In addition, despite its imposing size, WindRunner will be able to use runways of 1,800 meters, much shorter than those required for current cargo planes, thus allowing it to reach previously inaccessible areas.
Radia has already raised nearly $100 million from major investors like LS Power and ConocoPhillips, demonstrating interest in this project. In addition, the company has established key partnerships with aeronautics manufacturers such as Aernnova, Leonardo and AFuzion, to develop the various components of the aircraft.
Scheduled to enter service by the end of the decade, WindRunner could triple the global area of land available for the installation of large wind turbines, thereby accelerating the global energy transition.
Source: www.journaldugeek.com
