GE Renewable Energy expects to sign a final deal “shortly” to produce the 12MW Haliade-X offshore wind turbine in China, the company confirmed to Recharge.
A spokesman for the US group said a factory in Jieyang City, Guangdong province, “will give us the opportunity to meet China’s growing demand for offshore wind energy”.
News of the plan – first reported by Recharge on Monday – emerged from China after a meeting between the Jieyang mayor and GE Renewable Energy CEO Jérôme Pécresse.
The spokesman for the Paris-based GE renewables business said: “GE Renewable Energy signed with Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group (GMC) the heads of terms of a future offshore wind factory in Jieyang city. We are currently working on the definitive agreement that we expect to sign shortly.”
The spokesman added: “Saint-Nazaire [in northwest France] remains GE Renewable Energy's offshore manufacturing site for all other Haliade-X international projects.”
Most of the largest offshore wind projects due to come online in Chinese waters are off Guangdong, a new ranking of the sector there prepared by Recharge reveals.
The Haliade-X is the world's most powerful wind turbine currently planned for commercial production, and critical to GE's plans for the sector.
