Three years have passed since GE Renewable Energy announced its largest offshore wind turbine Haliade-X, and now the prototype of GE’s latest and most powerful 14MW wind turbine has started to operate in Rotterdam of the Netherlands.
GE launched its enormous offshore wind turbine series Haliade-X in November 2019. The turbine had an initial capacity of roughly 12MW, and generated the first kilowatt of electricity in Scotland, with another increase of capacity to 13MW seen in the following year alongside the increasing scale of wind turbines. GE, after obtaining the model certificate in 2021, is now the first offshore wind power supplier that operates 14MW wind turbines.
The prototype of the 14MW Haliade-X wind turbine sits at approximately 260m in height, with each single blade measuring at 107m, and claims to generate 74GWh of power each year, though we will have to wait until 2026 to witness the actual power generation effect of the 14MW wind turbine. The third phase of the extensive offshore wind power program Dogger Bank in the UK, Dogger Bank C offshore wind farm, will adopt 87 units of the 14MW Haliade-X wind turbine at a combined installed capacity of 1.2GW, with all three phases adding to 3.6GW in total that will provide power for 6 million households.
GE is now preparing to measure the 14MW wind turbine prototype for certification purposes.
However, the 14MW Haliade-X wind turbine is not the largest offshore wind turbine in the world. Denmark-based Vestas is currently developing the V236-15.0 wind turbine, which is scheduled for prototype completion and extensive production in 2024, while the 16MW MySE 16.0-242 wind turbine of MingYang Smart Energy will also initiate commercial production starting from 2024.
(Cover photo source: GE)
