GE introduced its new Renewable Energy business at the European Wind Energy Association’s 2015 Annual Event in Paris on November 17. The new unit significantly expands GE’s wind portfolio in the wake of its recent acquisition of Alstom’s power and grid businesses.
“Today is an exciting day for the future of the wind industry,” said Jérôme Pécresse, President & CEO of GE Renewable Energy. “With the creation of our new business, GE now has one of the world’s largest renewable energy footprints, and our goal is to help drive the wind industry forward by drawing on the shared expertise of two innovative companies.”
The new business expands GE’s global wind footprint to more than 30,000 turbines worldwide and significantly increases its presence in regions like Europe and Latin America. In Europe alone, GE’s installed base will grow by approximately 50% as a result of the deal.
“Over the past few years, we have really focused on making our wind business more global,” explained Anne McEntee, President & CEO of GE’s onshore wind unit. “The Alstom deal helps us gain local experience in key growth regions, and we will be extending our services capabilities to a broader group of customers across the newly combined fleet.”
In addition, GE Renewable Energy is welcoming a new offshore wind unit into the portfolio. Featuring new Haliade turbine technology, the offshore business has built a significant backlog of orders with EDF in France and has been selected for the Merkur offshore project in Germany. The Haliade technology will also be featured in the historic Block Island project, which is set to become the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Construction is underway, and the project will begin operation next year.
“Offshore wind is a challenging industry, but we believe the market has real potential,” said Anders Soe-Jensen, President & CEO of GE’s offshore wind unit. “Our goal is to work closely with customers to continue validating our technology as we begin to scale and grow the business.”
GE Renewable Energy plans to extend its services capabilities across both existing fleets, with an emphasis on using cutting-edge digital and analytics capabilities to help customers improve productivity and increase power output. Earlier this year, GE launched its Digital Wind Farm, which aims to create a digital infrastructure for the wind industry. The Digital Wind Farm harnesses the analytics power of the GE Store and is powered by Predix, the secure software platform for the Industrial Internet.