sustainability
Second Life: This Plant Will Recycle Wind Turbine Blades In Spain
Wind power is a fast-growing source of renewable energy, but that doesn’t mean the industry isn’t trying to lower its carbon footprint. One way to do it involves recycling wind turbine blades.
Lean Management
Lean Management: GE’s Wind Turbine Plant In Florida Is Using Continuous Improvement To Serve Customers Better
Workers at GE Renewable Energy’s plant in Pensacola, Florida, have a reason to feel good about their work. They make some of the most popular onshore wind turbines on the planet. The GE unit’s 2-megawatt (MW) onshore wind turbines reached a mind-blowing milestone in 2020 — a combined 20 gigawatts of installed capacity in 23 U.S. states and 10 countries. That’s enough to power the equivalent of 12.9 million homes around the world.
Renewable energy
Circular Economy: Wind Turbine Blade Maker Is Working To Turn Waste Into A Resource
Wind energy is a powerful tool for shrinking the world’s carbon footprint. Making the machines that convert wind into clean power, however, comes with its own footprint, as is true of any manufacturing industry.
Take the 13 global factories run by LM Wind Power, the GE Renewable Energy subsidiary. Among the blades they manufacture are wind turbine blades up to 107 meters in length for GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X offshore wind turbines. Just one turn of the turbine can generate enough energy to supply the equivalent of one U.K. home for two days.
GE
The Shape Of Things To Come: How Innovation Defines The Next Chapter In GE History
Earlier this week, GE announced a “defining moment” in its history, a plan to form three global public companies, each a leader in its industry, focused on aviation, healthcare and energy.
GE
A Defining Moment: GE To Form 3 Industry-Leading Public Companies Focused On Aviation, Healthcare and Energy
Renewable energy
Second Wind: GE And Partners Seek To Recycle Turbine Blades In Europe
Wind power is a fast-growing source of renewable energy, but that doesn’t mean the industry isn’t trying to lower its carbon footprint. One way involves purging emissions from the wind turbine’s entire life cycle, whether that’s raw material sourcing, manufacturing processes or the transportation of the components to the wind farm.
Hydropower
High Water: This Pumped Storage Tech Will Help Power Austria’s Trains And Balance The Grid
Austria might be landlocked, but it has a special relationship with mountains and water. It is home to emerald-green alpine lakes fed by majestic Tyrolean glaciers, and the river that inspired that immortal waltz: “The Blue Danube.” Water was also Austria’s lifeblood ever since it started building hundreds of hydropower plants to propel the economy forward a century ago. It’s hardly a surprise that the country has even had an affectionate nickname for water: They called it “white coal.”
Haliade-X
Sea Power: Most Powerful Wind Turbine Built To Date Picked For Huge U.K. Offshore Farm
GE’s Haliade-X offshore wind turbine was designed to evolve with the market, and evolve it has. The initial model produced 12 megawatts — and even at that level, a single rotation of the machine’s blades could generate enough power for one U.K. household for two days. But when GE Renewable Energy engineers tested a Haliade-X prototype, they found it could be optimized to produce 13 MW. Now an even more powerful version will be rated at 14 MW — and it’s that machine that’s just been selected for Dogger Bank C, the 1.2-gigawatt, third phase of the U.K.’s Dogger Bank wind farm.
climate
Danielle Merfeld Goes To Washington: GE Leader Brings Ideas For Sustainable Future To The White House
One of the last business trips Danielle Merfeld took before the pandemic was to get an up-close look at the prototype for GE’s Haliade-X, the most powerful offshore wind turbine in operation, installed at the tip of the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Earth Day
Charting A Cleaner Future: Wind, Solar, Hydrogen, Natural Gas, Hydro Power Are Helping The World Decarbonize
Thursday, April 22, marks the 51st Earth Day, and governments, companies, as well as ordinary people concerned about the planet’s climate are taking part in events celebrating the birth of the modern environmental movement.