GE Announces Haliade-X, the World’s Most Powerful Offshore Wind Turbine

• Haliade-X brings higher value to customers by producing more energy
  from the wind with a 12 MW generator rating, an industry-leading
  capacity factor1 and advanced digital
  capabilities
• Haliade-X 12 MW is currently being bid for projects that will ship
  in 2021
• Haliade-X 12 MW will produce 45 percent more energy than any other
  offshore wind turbine available today and will generate up to 67 GWh
  annually2, enough renewable power for up to
  5,000 U.S. households2
• $400 million program will fund engineering, testing and supply
  chain development over the next three to five years

PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GE Renewable Energy (NYSE:GE) today unveiled its plan to develop the
largest, most powerful offshore wind turbine: the Haliade-X. Featuring a
12 MW direct drive generator and an industry leading gross capacity
factor of 63 percent, the Haliade-X will produce 45 percent more energy
than any other offshore turbine available today2. GE
will invest more than $400 million over the next three to five years in
development and deployment of the Haliade-X.

John Flannery, Chairman and CEO of GE said, “We want to lead in the
technologies that are driving the global energy transition. Offshore
wind is one of those technologies and we will bring the full resources
of GE to make the Haliade-X program successful for our customers.”

Towering 260 meters over the sea, more than five times the size of the
iconic Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, the Haliade-X 12 MW carries a
220-meter rotor. Designed and manufactured by LM Wind Power, the
107-meter-long blades will be the longest offshore blades to date and
will be longer than the size of a soccer field. One Haliade-X 12 MW
turbine will generate up to 67 GWh annually2, enough
clean power for up to 5,000 households per turbine, and up to 300,000
U.S. households in a 750 MW windfarm configuration.

Jérôme Pécresse, President and CEO of GE Renewable Energy said, “The
renewables industry took more than 20 years to install the first 17 GW
of offshore wind. Today, the industry forecasts that it will install
more than 90 GW over the next 12 years. This is being driven by lower
cost of electricity from scale and technology. The Haliade-X shows GE’s
commitment to the offshore wind segment and will set a new benchmark for
cost of electricity, thus driving more offshore growth.”

The ability to produce more power from a single turbine means a smaller
number of turbines in the total farm, which translates to less capital
expenditure for the balance of plant and reduced risk in project
execution as the installation cycle time is reduced. It also simplifies
operation and maintenance of the wind farm. All of this reduces the
investment and operation cost for developers, makes offshore wind
projects more profitable, and ultimately lowers cost of electricity for
consumers.

John Lavelle, CEO of Offshore Wind at GE Renewable Energy said “The
Haliade-X 12 MW will help our customers in an increasingly competitive
offshore environment, and through its size and digital functionality
provide important value across manufacturing, installation and
operation.”

GE’s Haliade-X platform is designed to offer greater efficiency in
generating power from the wind that is available. With a 63 percent
gross capacity factor1, the Haliade-X 12 MW is five to seven
points above the current industry benchmark. Therefore, it will produce
more energy per MW installed, which will significantly increase returns
for customers.

To design and build the Haliade-X platform, GE Renewable Energy is
relying on an unprecedented collaboration across the GE portfolio,
leveraging the knowledge of GE’s Onshore wind team, with 50,000 turbines
in the field; the blade expertise of LM Power Wind; the GE Power and GE
Aviation engineers for peer reviews of component and systems design; the
Global Research Center for control systems and component validation; and
GE Digital for supporting digital modelling, analytics and app
development, the program is a GE-wide effort.

GE Renewable Energy aims to supply its first nacelle for demonstration
in 2019 and ship the first units in 2021.

1 “Capacity factor” compares how much energy was
generated against the maximum that could have been produced at
continuous full power operation during a specific period of time.

2 Based on wind conditions on a typical German North
Sea site.

About GE Renewable Energy

GE Renewable Energy is a $10 billion start-up that brings together one
of the broadest product and service portfolios of the renewable energy
industry. Combining onshore and offshore wind, hydro and innovative
technologies such as concentrated solar power and more recently turbine
blades, GE Renewable Energy has installed more than 400+ gigawatt
capacity globally to make the world work better and cleaner. With more
than 22,000 employees present in more than 55 countries, GE Renewable
Energy is backed by the resources of the world's first digital
industrial company. Our goal is to demonstrate to the rest of the world
that nobody should ever have to choose between affordable, reliable, and
sustainable energy. Follow us @GErenewables
and www.gerenewableenergy.com

Contacts

GE Renewable Energy
Sebastien Duchamp
[email protected]
Phone:
+33673195964