March 13, 2006—GE has announced that it has entered into a $27 million partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to design a next-generation offshore wind turbine.
The power rating of the turbine will be optimized for minimal cost of energy but is expected to be between 5 and 7 Megawatts, making it one of the most powerful wind turbines in the world. The partnership will also help expand the nation’s wind energy potential. The research will be conducted at GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY.
Wind Energy is a key component of GE’s ecomagination initiative. Ecomagination represents the company’s commitment to aggressively drive and bring to market new technologies that help its customers address their most pressing energy and environmental challenges. Under ecomagination, GE has pledged to more than double its level of investment in the development of cleaner technologies from $700 million to $1.5 billion over the next five years.
GE’s partnership with DOE on this project will last 3-4 years. During this time, GE and DOE will collaborate on research to develop a prototype of a 5-7MW offshore wind turbine. A wind turbine of this magnitude would be nearly twice today’s industry standard, however full commercialization of this offshore design is still some years away. GE’s largest turbine in operation today is the 3.6MW offshore wind turbine.
GE Global Research was the first industrial research lab in the United States and is one of the world’s most diversified research centers, providing innovative technology for all of GE’s businesses. For more information, visit the Web site.
