GE Renewable Energy has unveiled its largest onshore wind turbine to date, a 6MW monster with modular two-piece blade, with plans to have the model in the field by 2022.
The 6.0-164 Cypress design, which is engineered to facilitate up-tower repairs and features condition-based predictive services to improve return-to-service and uptime, will have an annual energy production (AEP) up to 11% higher than the US OEM’s 5.3-158 mode.
“The Cypress platform is already providing our customers the ability to lower the cost of onshore wind and gain added flexibility in siting turbines,” said Peter Wells, CEO of GE Onshore Wind Europe.
“This latest product in the platform will help them drive additional growth of clean, renewable wind power across Europe and beyond.”
The 6.0-164 is the latest model based on GE’s Cypress platform, which also includes the 5.5-158, 5.3-158 and 4.8-158. The technology of GE's 2 MW and 3 MW fleets which serve an installed base of more than 20 GW.
Each 6.0-164 turbine will produce enough electricity to power approximately 5,800 European households.
GE has received more than 3.4GW of orders for its Cypress turbines in countries including Germany, Austria, Sweden, Lithuania, Brazil, Australia, and Turkey. The Cypress was originally launched in 2018.
Facing relentless margin-tightening in an evermore competitive, auction-driven energy market, turbine makers including GE, Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and Nordex have each engineered innovative 5MW-plus machines designed to significantly reduce wind’s levelised cost of energy.
