Renewable energy – Future Wind

World record for Haliade-X 12 MW!

Pondera’s Haliade-X 12 MW prototype in Port of Rotterdam has just set a new world record! It is the first wind turbine ever to generate 288 MWh over the course of 24 hours. In the next 5 years, the Haliade-X prototype will undergo a series of tests to validate the turbine’s power curve, loads, grid performance & reliability. In addition, these tests will allow GE to collect the data needed to obtain the Type Certificate, a key step in commercializing the Haliade-X.

Key figures for the Haliade-X 12 MW

Capacity: 12 MW
Rotor diameter: 220 m
Tip height: 245 m
Blade length: 107 m
Annual energy yield: 46.3 GWh
Wind turbine swept area: 38,000 m²
(These numbers are based on the SDE wind report)

General information

Pondera Development and SIF Holding, together with GE Renewable Energy, are developing the Haliade-X on the Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam. The development of the innovative Haliade-X project in Rotterdam has been made possible thanks to Pondera’s extensive knowledge and many years of experience in Dutch wind energy legislation and regulatory policy. The increase in size and scale of (offshore) wind turbines is an important step in generating more sustainable energy, accelerating the energy transition and thereby limiting the effects of climate change.

The offshore wind turbine prototype is installed onshore in order to ease access for testing and monitoring purposes. This will also allow GE to collect the data needed to obtain the Type Certificate, a key step in commercializing the Haliade-X.

The Haliade-X can generate 46.3 GWh of electricity annually. That is enough power for 15,900 European households and thus saves 28.1 kilotons of CO₂.

HALIADE-X TOWER SECTIONS ARRIVED AT ROTTERDAM

The four tower sections that will be part of Haliade-X 12 MW prototype to be installed this summer have just arrived at the Port of Rotterdam, where Pondera Development and GE are building the largest wind turbine in the world.

After unloading the tower segments, a series of pre-assembly works will take place, including the installation of some tower segments. Haliade-X 12 MW nacelle and blade components, currently being manufactured in Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg (France) respectively, will arrive later in the summer to complete the prototype installation. This demo unit will be installed onshore to provide easier access for testing. During the initial period of operations, it will allow GE Renewable Energy to collect data needed to obtain a Type Certificate, a key step to go into serial production in 2021. Haliade-X 12 MW is a multi-million investment that will help that will help reduce offshore wind’s cost of energy in order to make it a more competitive source of clean and renewable energy.

WORLD’S LARGEST WIND TURBINE BLADE IS LONGER THAN A FOOTBALL FIELD. HERE’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

How long is the world’s largest wind turbine blade? Stretching 107 meters, the blade is longer than a football field and equal to 1.4 times the length of a Boeing 747. Using a different measure, it would take Usain Bolt, the fastest human and a world record holder in the 100-meter dash, close to 10 seconds to race from its root to its tip. It might also represent one of the largest single machine components ever built. Workers just popped the first one from its mold at an LM Wind Power factory in Cherbourg, France.

Three of these blades will form the rotor of GE’s Haliade-X 12MW, the world’s largest and most powerful offshore wind turbine, which is capable of powering 16,000 European homes. GE acquired LM Wind Power, the world’s largest designer and manufacturer of wind turbine blades, in 2017.

GE also recently laid the foundation for the first Haliade-X in Rotterdam, Holland. When complete, the prototype, which will stand on land, will be 260 meters tall from base to blade tips, and the rotor will sweep a circle with a diameter of 220 meters. The machine is expected to start producing electricity later this year.

The brand-new factory where LM Wind Power makes the massive blades for the Haliade-X 12MW is located on the banks of the English Channel in Normandy, just a short drive from the wide, sandy beaches where Allied troops landed on D-Day. LM Wind Power built the plant near Cherbourg’s industrial port to allow workers to load the blades onto ships and send them to their destination.]

Operating in three shifts, workers build the blades from a high-tech sandwich made from thin layers of glass and carbon fibers, and wood. They fuse everything together with a special resin.

GE Renewable Energy will put two blades through rigorous testing to demonstrate their ability to withstand more than 20 years of spinning offshore. Lukasz Cejrowski has been building wind turbine blades at LM Wind Power for more than a decade and oversees the company’s effort to build the 107-meter blade. Originally from Poland, he’s been living in Cherbourg since 2017, when LM Wind Power broke ground on the new factory. To him, the size of the blade is a matter of perspective. “When you spend some time with the blade, it doesn’t seem so big anymore. You get used to it,” he laughs. “Then again, after a hard day, I remind myself: If breaking a world record was easy, then everybody would do it, right?”

Bolt would agree.