Ses douze microgénérateurs positionnés au centre du conduit, en fibre de carbone, «pèsent moins d’une tonne au total, soit seulement un dixième du poids des éoliennes classique», précise le South China Morning Post.
Translation:
Its twelve micro-generators positioned in the center of the carbon fiber duct “weigh less than a ton in total, which is only a tenth of the weight of conventional wind turbines,” specifies the South China Morning Post.
A “ton in total” is likely a ton per turbine so a ton for the nacelle (generator and rotor) of a rated 100 kW wind turbine, so 12 tons for the complete 1.2 MW turbine (but with very strong winds), a regular 1 MW wind turbine weighing about 10 times more (for example 91.2 T for the nacelle).
Another article:
At 60 meters long, 40 meters wide and 40 meters high, the helium airship is no lightweight, but at less than a ton, it is 90% lighter than conventional wind turbines with the same output.
A 1 MW wind turbine weighs about 91.2 T for the nacelle (see above). So the S1500 would be rather about 900‰ lighter if its weight is really a ton. So a ton could be the weight of only one 100 kW wind turbine as assumed above. But a total weight of only a ton is not impossible.
Yet another article:
Again this weight of only 1 ton for the total S1500, whereas a 1 MW wind turbine weighs about 100 tons (91.2 T for the nacelle as assumed above) without the tower, which is not 10 times more but about 100 times more. There may have been a translation problem, and the weight of one ton may only concern a single 100 kW wind turbine (among the twelve), which would be about 10% of the weight of a regular wind turbine of same power.
A quote:
The S1500’s design features 12 carbon-fiber micro-generators within a duct system that accelerates airflow, boosting efficiency by over 20%.
20% does not represent a huge effect in term of power, unless this is 20 % additional wind speed.
Now we can admit that the huge power of S1500 is mainly due to the very strong winds at high altitude, as indicated in the title (" Winds ‘3× Faster’ at 1,500m for 27× Power Output "). But that implies the turbine resist to very strong winds.The rotor of each turbine is far smaller than a rotor of a quoted 100 kW traditional wind turbine. The rpm of each generator being higher, the generator could also be lighter than a regular generator. Interesting but still not complete information.
Cependant, l’équipe n’a pas encore publié de données sur la puissance que le système a été capable de produire pendant le test.
Translation:
However, the team has not yet released data on the power that the system was able to produce during the test.
This is perhaps the most reliable information about this project, yet it should still be monitored.
A question about a detail: I wonder if the secondary ducts of each of the 12 turbines actually add efficiency to the overall annular duct.