General Electric Renewable Energy held a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday in Rotterdam, The Netherlands for its behemoth 12-megawatt wind turbine.
Designed as an offshore wind turbine, the GE Haliade-X 12 will be built onshore to “facilitate access for testing.”
Construction of the turbine’s foundations began earlier this year. Its nacelle, blades and tower parts will arrive later this summer, CNBC reported.
In January, GE Renewable Energy signed a deal with Future Wind, a joint venture between SIF Holding Netherlands and Pondera Development, to install the prototype, Kallanish Energy finds.
The deal also includes five years of testing as well as a 15-year full service operation and maintenance agreement, CNBC reported.
The Haliade-X 12 dwarfs every other onshore or offshore wind turbine on the planet: it will stand roughly 853 feet tall, with 351-foot-long blades, and a 752-foot rotor.
“We are on schedule to install the biggest and more powerful wind turbine in the world,” Vincent Schellings, GE Renewable’s chief offshore wind turbine designer, said, in a statement Monday.
Schellings added the turbine would “contribute to make offshore wind energy more competitive.”
GE is investing $400 million in the development and deployment of the Haliade-X.
Currently, the largest wind turbine in production produces 7.6 MW of power and is manufactured by Germany’s Enercon. It stands 651 feet tall, and features blades 208 feet long.
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