GE’s ‘workhorse’ 1.5MW wind turbine hits 15,000 installations

In the last year, the US industrial giant has watched global installations of the product it often calls the industry’s “workhorse” climb from more than 12,000 last January to 15,000 today.

The company, meanwhile, is also pushing a new model. Its 2.5MW machine, introduced to the US market last year, is debuting in grand style at the 845MW, 338-turbine Shepherds Flat project in Oregon.

GE’s 15,000th unit is one of 108 1.5MW machines at Basin Electric’s Crow Lake wind farm in South Dakota, the largest in the country owned by an electric cooperative. The unit is to be owned and operated by Mitchell Technical Institute, which will use it to train students in its Wind Turbine Technology Program.

The GE 1.5MW fleet has generated 1.4bn MWhs of electricity, GE says, over nearly 300m total operating hours. The 15,000th unit “demonstrates the key role that this technology has played in supporting the rapid development of the wind industry in North America and worldwide”, Victor Abate, GE vice president for renewable energy, says in a statement.

But GE’s wind business has suffered with the slowdown in 2010 US wind installations. Wind orders in the fourth quarter were $1.3bn, down 17% from a year earlier.