The largest wind turbine turning on the planet – GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X prototype in Rotterdam, the Netherlands – has been stepped up from its original 12MW nameplate to 13MW, with tests set to get underway to prove-up the output boost.

The upscaled version of the US OEM’s landmark design, first revealed in an exclusive to Recharge in 2018, will be able to generate 4% more annual energy production than at start-up, according to GE.

The 13MW Haliade-X, which will fly the same 107-metre-long blades used on the smaller model, is in the frame for deployment on the first two phases of giant 3.6GW Dogger Bank wind farm, with a total of 190 units to be installed starting in 2023 for the UK project being developed by Equinor-SSE Renewables.

The machine has also been selected by developer Orsted for the 120MW Skipjack and 1.1GWW Ocean Wind projects in the US Atlantic.

“Three years in the making, the Haliade-X platform has proven to be a successful story,” said Vincent Schellings, chief technology officer for GE’s offshore wind unit.

“Combined with almost 5GW of customer commitments and an international testing and R&D programme, the 13MW uprated version is a true testament of how we continue to innovate and develop our Haliade-X technology to address customers’ needs.”

Operating in a ‘quasi-offshore’ site in the Dutch port of Rotterdam since November 2019, the design recently secured its provisional type certificate – a key step on the path to market-readiness – and set a new world record by generating 288MWh in one single day.

Serial production of the Haliade-X is slated to start “in the second half of 2021” at GE’s Saint-Nazaire, France factory.

Earlier this month, rival turbine maker Siemens Gamesa filed a patent-infringement lawsuit related to the Haliade-X which GE said “has no merit” and “appears to be a retaliatory move” after the US company filed a patent-infringement complaint against Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) in August.

Siemens Gamesa in May unveiled its long-promised ‘1X’ machine, the SG14.0-222DD, a 14MW platform engineered to be digitally up-tuned to 15MW, that will feature a record-setting 222-metre-diameter rotor, and earlier this month Japanese-Danish joint venture MHI Vestas revealed recently that it would launch a new turbine platform that would be a “leap rather than evolution” from its current V164/V174 machine that rates up to 10MW.

Developer-led group the Ocean Renewable Energy Action Coalition, calculates that offshore wind power could make up 85% of 1.4TW build out of global renewable ocean energy plant by 2050.

Technology

GE gears up Haliade-X flagship to 13MW as huge UK Dogger Bank delivery looms