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GE Will Spend $400M to Develop Record Giant Offshore Wind Turbine

12-MW Turbines — Turbine to deliver 45% more power than any other offshore unit today, GE says.

*RENDERING COURTESY GENERAL ELECTRIC*

General Electric is investing $400 million over the next three to five years to develop and deploy a powerful offshore wind turbine that would be more than five times the size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The 12-MW direct drive generating Haliade-X, designed with a 220-meter-dia [722 ft] rotor, will produce 45% more energy than any other offshore turbine available today, GE announced March 1. Delivery is scheduled for 2021, the company says.

Jérôme Pécresse, president of GE Renewable Energy, said, “the industry forecasts it will install more than 90 gigawatts over the next 12 years” and GE is positioning itself to have a stake in those installations.

Featuring a 12-MW direct drive generator, the turbine is designed to have a leading gross capacity factor of 63%, five to seven points above the current benchmark for power-generating efficiency, GE notes.

Designed and manufactured by LM Wind Power, the 107-m-long blades will be the longest offshore blades to date. One Haliade-X turbine will rise 260 m [853 ft] over the sea and generate up to 67 GWh annually based on wind conditions on a typical German North Sea site.

Andreas Nauen, offshore chief executive officer at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, says the development of larger wind turbines shows how technology is driving down the levelized cost of energy, which measures lifetime costs divided by energy production.

Siemens' latest SG 8.0-167 direct drive turbine, with a 167-m-dia [548 ft] rotor, is expected to be available by 2020.

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Johanna Knapschaefer, ENR’s New England Special Correspondent, has been writing about trends in design and construction of buildings, bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure for more than a decade. She also profiles award-winning industry leaders and delves into broader construction issues such as workforce training, worker safety and health, climate change remediation and emerging offshore wind and tidal energy developments. Over the past two decades, her articles have appeared in Architectural Record, BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, American Banker, Modern Metals, BusinessNH Magazine, Pittsburgh Magazine and many other publications. Johanna is fluent in Japanese, and taught English and academic writing in the Science and Engineering Department of Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, while living in Japan for eight years.

When not writing, Johanna enjoys mountain climbing, singing and playing her Spanish guitar.

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