The new turbine, dubbed Haliade-X, will measure 853 feet tall, the company said. The blades, manufactured by LM Wind Power, will be longer than a soccer field.
One 12-megawatt turbine will generate as much as 67 gigawatt hours a year, which is enough to power 5,000 households. Bigger turbines need fewer foundations and less complex grid connections than smaller units. That means a wind farm’s layout can be made more efficient, and fewer machines means less maintenance.
GE said it’ll supply the first nacelle for a demonstration in 2019 and ship the first turbines in 2021.
“The renewables industry took more than 20 years to install the first 17 gigawatt of offshore wind,” said Jerome Pecresse, CEO Renewable Energy.
“Today, the industry forecasts that it will install more than 90 gigawatts over the next 12 years,” Pecresse added. “This is being driven by lower cost of electricity from scale and technology.”
