Wind turbines output grows with the size of the blade (it's squared). http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph240/parise1/ edit: When you take into account that the blade size increase means a higher tower (and thus higher wind speeds), the increase is more staggering, because wind speed is cubed in the final output:

> Combining the effects of height and blade length, doubling the height and doubling the blade length will result in an increase of power over 22 fold.

This is why companies try so hard to build bigger blades, higher.

Current blades are just massive https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10382023/W...

The wingspan of a 747 is 68 meters. The newest GE turbine has a diameter of 220 meters, each blade is 107 meters. One blade is 50% longer than the whole wingspan of 747. You can fit 3x747 planes inside the area swept by a current turbine.

This is why Google's Makani project never took off...I really hoped for that project to succeed, it was very cool, but there is no way to compete with the bladed giants.

edited to address cjbest and baq valid comments