GE Renewable Energy has booked the first order for Cypress, the platform it launched last year to take its onshore wind business into the 4-5MW arena.
German developer Prowind will deploy three 4.8MW Cypress turbines with 158-metre-diameter rotors at a project in Bavaria, a heavily forested region where the US manufacturer claims the two-piece, LM Wind Power-made blades used on the platform will aid transportation.
Prowind expects to complete the Elfershausen project by the end of this year.
The 4.8MW is the lowest capacity of the Cypress machines, which GE Renewable Energy unveiled last September as it pushed its turbine range past the 5MW mark for the first time. The platform also includes a 5.3MW version, a prototype of which is already up and running at Wieringermeer, in the Netherlands.
Like other major wind OEMs, GE is offering developers more powerful onshore machines with longer blades as a way to tap more power at lower wind speeds.
