Further expanding its suite of services for the global wind industry, GE Energy is introducing WindLAYOUT, which provides an opportunity to improve the economics of a wind plant through optimization of wind turbine layout. GE Energy, North America’s leading supplier of wind turbines, continues to lead the wind industry by developing new technology to meet the growing demand for cleaner energy. “This new offering is another in GE’s series of continuing technology advancements helping to move the wind industry forward,” says Victor Abate, vice president-renewables.
A key step in the development of a wind power project is the siting of wind turbines to achieve the highest possible level of energy production, while also addressing project costs and constraints. GE’s new WindLAYOUT offering, part of the company’s portfolio of Wind Plant Optimization products and services, utilizes GE’s core power generation expertise to maximize energy capture without exceeding turbine design limits.
With GE’s WindLAYOUT service, customers are able to make the best cost-benefit decisions regarding site development. The new offering includes features such as a wind turbine layout report detailing locations that maximize energy production estimates and due diligence on a wind resource assessment. The WindLAYOUT service is available for GE’s 1.5-megawatt and 2.5xL wind turbines. The GE 1.5-megawatt machine is the world’s most widely used wind turbine, with 12,000 now installed around the globe. The GE fleet of installed 1.5-megawatt wind turbines has exceeded 125 million operating hours.
In addition, GE has invested more than $100 million to launch its 2.5xL wind turbine technology and to enhance its production facilities in Salzbergen, Germany. The 2.5xL is designed specifically to meet the immediate needs of the European wind power industry, where lack of available land can constrain the size of projects. To learn more go to www.ge-energy.com/wind
