Wind Turbines

You're looking at the reason wind has become the fastest growing sector of the renewable energy market. GE Energy has done it again with wind turbines that are almost inconceivable in size and efficiency. Both on-shore and off, they give utilities and electric cooperatives an attractive energy solution with minimal environmental impact.

Some of ecomagination's biggest successes materialize out of thin air. When the wind blows, GE's wind turbines are able to operate with higher efficiency and reliability than ever before. In fact, GE's most popular wind turbine, the 1.5MW turbine can produce enough electricity for about 400 homes each year. With blade rotors that sweep an area almost as large as a football field, and an overall reach that is as tall as a 30-story building, these wind turbines can be developed in large-scale "farms" to provide power. GE's 1.5MW turbines are well-proven technology with over 5,000 turbines installed worldwide.

Wind outlook

Worldwide, about 85 percent of wind generation capacity is split between Europe (70 percent) and the United States (15 percent).

In the U.S., although the cost of wind energy is becoming increasingly competitive with other power generation such as natural gas and coal, it has penetrated less than 1 percent of U.S. generated electricity. However, last year, President Bush stated that wind energy could one day supply up to 20percent of the nation's power.

The European targets for wind power growth are substantial. Wind is projected to deliver 33 percent of all new electricity generation capacity and provide electricity for 86 million Europeans by 2010.

More information about wind turbines

Using a wind farm with 20 of GE's largest offshore turbines instead of generating the same amount of power through current fuel-powered sources will, in each year of operation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equal to keeping 27,000 cars off the road in the U.S.

A 100 MW wind farm will, over the course of 20 years, displace the need for nearly one million tons of coal, or nearly 600 million cubic meters of natural gas.

Generating electricity by use of GE's current installed base of wind turbines versus traditional fuel generation provides the benefit of keeping as much as 11.4 million tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted each year.

GE's installed base of wind turbines provide the same amount of electricity annually as is needed to power about 1.5 million U.S. households.

GE's installed wind turbines can generate an amount of electricity comparable to the energy produced by 9.5 million barrels of oil.