GE’s giant wind turbines set to debut in Sweden
Sweden is already a country with the highest renewable energy target in the European Union. Now GE Energy will be helping the country reach another milestone with a new deal for 57 giant 2.5-megawatt wind turbines that will be used by wind developer Arise Windpower. That project will have 300 large-scale turbines spinning by 2014. According to Arise, that many turbines will produce two terawatt-hours of electricity annually — an amount that is equal to today’s total wind power production in Sweden.
Big brother: The 2.5xl turbines in the deal will be made at GE’s plant in Salzbergen, Germany, which is pictured above. The bigger 2.5-megawatt builds upon the success of GE’s 1.5-megawatt wind turbine, one of the world’s most widely deployed wind turbines with more than 12,000 now installed. It’s designed to generate more electricity at lower wind speed sites.
Sweden’s goal is to have 50 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources by the year 2020. According to government officials, the country will have to increase its supply of renewable energy by about 10 percent over the next 11 years to do it.
The first five wind turbines are already on order and will be installed at the Brunsmo project near Karlskrona in southern Sweden in the fourth quarter of 2009. GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt officially signed a memorandum of understanding for the deal today.
While this project marks the debut of GE’s 2.5xl wind turbines in the Nordic region, more than 100 of the 2.5-MW machines already have been installed across Europe, and have compiled more than one million operating hours. In addition, GE has received more than one gigawatt of commitments over the next year and a half to provide 2.5xl wind turbines for projects across Europe.
The 2.5xl turbine has a rotor diameter of 100 meters — or about the length of a football field. By comparison, its widely used 1.5-megawatt cousin has a rotor diamter of 70 to 77 meters. The 2.5xl turbine isn’t currently sold in the U.S., but GE will begin offering it to North American customers next year — with those units to be assembled in Pensacola, Fla.
* Read the announcement
* Read about the 2.5xl turbines coming soon to the U.S.
* See the technical specs of the 2.5MW turbine
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Hi,
That is very good!
Hope you can do more on wind energy.
Peter
That’s great when do we start building them HERE in the USA ?
Can I receive some type of break down on your wind turbines. Price, mega watts, site work approx cost and what the mean average output say over a month. Thanks
I’ve been toying with an idea for the last four years and I need to talk to someone in the field of wind harnessing and using it for saving energy and reducing consumption of fuel for the home owner. I have a rough prototype. Please let me know if you are interested and who should I talk to?
Vic
America needs portable home wind generators and solar panels that can be plugged in with an extension cord to the wall socket to reduce energy consumption. If enough homes had these we could solve huge shortage problems, and people who rent could take them to their next domicile. What if every home in America had one of these solar panes at a cost of around 400 dollars; what would that impact be? Probably would’ve been better spent stimulus money!
Hello, just trying to find out where is going to be your next wind farm so i can get a job building them for you.