GE Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric based in Paris, revealed "the first manufactured components" for its gigantic Haliade-X 12 megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbine.
On Monday, the firm displayed the first nacelle for the turbine, which will now be shipped from Saint-Nazaire in France to Rotterdam-Maasvlakte in the Netherlands. A nacelle sits directly behind a turbine's blades and is a shell-like structure that contains crucial pieces of kit. These include the turbine's gearbox, controller, generator and brake.
GE Renewable Energy said that a prototype of the Haliade-X 12 MW would be installed onshore in the Netherlands in order to "simplify access for testing." Another nacelle is being assembled with a view to testing it in "actual operational conditions" at a site in the U.K.
John Lavelle, the CEO of GE Renewable Energy Offshore Wind, said the firm was "on track to start commercializing this new product very shortly."
As technology develops, the size of wind turbines is increasing. In September 2018, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, a major player in the sector, launched the first commercially available double digit turbine, the V164-10.0 MW. The turbine has 80-meter long blades which weigh 35 tons each, and a tip height of around 187 meters.
The scale of GE Renewable Energy's Haliade-X 12 MW turbine is also considerable. It will have a capacity of 12 megawatts, a height of 260 meters and a blade length of 107 meters. The turbine will generate 67 gigawatt hours of gross annual energy. The company has repeatedly described it as "the world's largest offshore wind turbine."
