MEET THE HALIADE-X, THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL AND EFFICIENT OFFSHORE WIND TURBINE

It’s hard to conceive of just how large it is. The new offshore wind turbine, Haliade-X, unveiled in a wind energy news update by GE in March 2018, is 260 meters high, from base to blade tips—and its blades are as long as a football field. The rotor features a diameter of 220 meters, and thanks to the latest offshore wind turbine technology by GE, each turbine can power 16,000 homes and provide more energy (45%!) than any offshore wind turbine today.

This new offshore turbine is leading wind turbine technology advancements through its larger rotor that lets the turbine gather more wind—increasing what’s known as the “capacity factor.” The Haliade-X is not only the largest offshore wind turbine, but its 63% capacity is 5-7 points higher than its competition, and it’s money-saving, too. With each increasing point of capacity factor, customers using this offshore turbine can see a savings of $7 million per 100 megawatts.

And it’s not just the size that matters—the Haliade-X is a new development in wind energy because it offers increased efficiency for customers, as well—through all steps of the construction process. The 12MW design lets operators build their offshore wind farms with fewer cables, fewer turbines, and reduced construction and maintenance costs—allowing them to see a faster ROI with increased wind energy efficiency. “This helps the customers when they are competing at auctions to build offshore farms and enter the lowest bid per kilowatt-hour,” says John Lavelle, the CEO of GE Renewable Energy’s Offshore Wind unit. He and his team are opening the lines of conversations with companies aimed to construct wind farms in the next few years. “We are trying to target those bidders, so they can factor in the value we can bring. If they win, we win.”

These improvements in turbine technology were created using teams from both GE Renewable Energy and GE Global Research—and the teams have more work ahead of them with the biggest offshore wind turbine in the world. Engineers from GE locations all over the world will be finalizing and tweaking the Haliade-X’s design and readying it for its first round of tests. The eventual goal is to have the first complete test turbine in the second quarter of 2019. 

Learn more about GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X 12 MW offshore wind turbine by contacting our team today.