Up to 14 Megawatts of Power From One Wind Turbine: Meet the GE Haliade-X
The Haliade-X Turbine from GE
Source: GE
The New York Times recently visited a test site for the world’s largest wind turbine in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Operated by GE, the turbine is 260 m or 853 ft tall, 220 m in diameter, and comes in three variants with a choice of 12, 13 or 14 megawatt outputs, enough to light up a town of roughly 12,000 homes. In fact, GE claims one rotation could power a single home for two days.
The Haliade-X generates almost 30 times more electricity than the first offshore machines installed off Denmark in 1991. Although this prototype is currently located on land at Rotterdam Harbour, it will ultimately be manufactured to withstand deep sea conditions.
GE came up with the Haliade-X with the knowledge that turbine size will be crucial in future auctions for wind power generation sites. According to GE, the Haliade-X offers many benefits: larger turbines mean more electricity, fewer individual turbines per wind farm, more profit and reduced operating and maintenance costs. These factors will be crucial to GE’s customers in providing the maximum power output at the lowest price.
Danish Company Orsted has already placed a preliminary Order with GE for 90 units of the Haliade-X, to be a part of the Ocean Wind Project, off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Sources: The New York Times , GE
