GE Renewable Energy has inked a five-year R&D agreement with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult to test a range of next-generation technologies centred around the US company’s recently unveiled Haliade-X mega-turbine.

The 12MW machine, the launch of which Recharge revealed exclusively last month, as well as its 6MW stable-mate, the Haliade 150, will be put through an advanced test and demonstration programme at Catapult’s facility in Blyth, northeast England, designed to boost the models’ performance and reliability by mirroring “real-world operational conditions”.