GE Renewable Confirms 900 MW Wind Order, Tests 14 MW Haliade-X Turbine

GE Renewable Energy confirmed on October 11 that it received a firm order in September, to supply its Haliade-X offshore wind turbines to the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 project. In December 2020, it was the designated preferred supplier. The Vineyard Wind is currently building the first utility-scale offshore wind energy project over 15 miles off the coast of Massachusetts in the US.

GE will supply 62 of the turbines with a power rating of 13MW. They will be installed at the Atlantic Ocean project site, 24km off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

The development came as project developers Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) recently reached financial close on the project. Power is expected to start generating in 2023.

GE Renewable Energy today announced that its Haliade-X offshore wind turbine prototype is now running at 14 megawatts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. That makes GE Renewable Energy the first worldwide to hit the 14 MW mark for power output from a single offshore wind turbine.

In February 2021, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas had also announced the launch of a 15 MW offshore wind turbine, though that has not reached final trial stage yet.

The first V236-15.0 MW prototype is expected to be installed in 2022, while serial production is scheduled for 2024.

According to GE, one turbine of the 14 MW Haliade-X can generate up to 74 GWh of gross annual energy production.

The moves come even as offshore wind growth estimates continue to be ramped up on the back of the usual combination of falling costs and faster adoption. However, a worrying issue is the disappointing numbers from offshore wind in Europe this year, for factors ranging from low wind speeds to climate change, offshore wind, if costs continue to drop, will continue to gain. According to data produced by Vortex, which is an independent weather modelling firm, the strength of the wind blowing throughout northern Europe has decreased by as much as 15 per cent on average this year in some regions.

Offshore wind powered by the sort of large turbines highlighted above is expected to supply over 24 percent of energy for Europe by 2030.

The current energy crisis and the massive gas price hikes it has led to have only placed the spotlight back on this critical leg of the push for renewable energy.