Global: GE Introduces Powerful 3.2-130 Wind Turbine

GE introduced the powerful 3.2-130 as the first product under its new 3 megawatt (MW) platform. The announcement was made at HUSUM Wind 2015, a wind energy trade fair in Germany, one of the company’s key growth regions. The new turbine offers up to 20 percent increase in annual energy production* and is built upon the technological strengths of its predecessor models, the 2.75-120 and 2.5-120.

The 3.2-130 turbine offers a larger rotor diameter of 130 meters, improved load management systems and more efficient drive-train technology along with a correspondingly broad range of applications. The wind turbine can be combined with multiple tower technologies, enabling it to be tailored to site conditions. There are four different hub height options ranging between 85 and 155 meters.

“The 3.2-130 is the right product at the right time. With its high capacity factor, the turbine can offer efficient power supply in locations with low and medium wind speeds,” said Andreas von Bobart, general manager for GE’s renewable energy business in Germany. “With longer rotor blades and an updated load management system, the new 3-MW platform helps lower the overall cost of wind energy and is an important part of GE’s growth strategy for Germany, a key global region for renewable energy.”

GE’s 3 MW wind turbine platform represents a technology developed for the Industrial Internet. The turbines feature a network of sophisticated sensors, which analyze tens of thousands of data points every second to evaluate the performance and efficiency of wind farms, improve service productivity and create new revenue streams for customers. With more than 26,000 wind turbines and more than 43 gigawatts of installed capacity worldwide, GE provides enough energy to power the equivalent of 28 million German households per year. In Germany alone, more than 2,000 GE wind turbines are helping make the country a global flagship for renewable energies. Since 2002, approximately 3,600 wind turbines have been manufactured in Salzbergen, the European headquarters of GE’s renewable energy unit.

*Compared to the 2.75-120 model, with performance based on average wind conditions in Germany.