General Electric (GE) has stepped up its investment in clean energy over the past few years, and the company just announced the world’s most efficient high-output wind turbine – the “brilliant” 2.5-120. The 2.5-120 is the first wind turbine able to provide world-class efficiency and power output at low wind speed sites, and it features a 25% increase in efficiency and a 15% increase in power output compared to GE’s current models. In case you’re wondering what an 120-meter turbine will look like, its rotor will be the size of the London Eye!
The high efficiency and high output of GE’s 2.5-120 wind turbine will allow for higher returns for wind farm operators – even with lower wind speed sites. The “not-just-smart-but-brilliant” turbine is ideal for heavily forested regions in places like Europe and Canada that experience low wind speeds.
In a statement, Vic Abate, vice president of GE’s renewable energy business said: “Our 2.5-120 is the first wind turbine that utilizes the Industrial Internet to help manage the intermittency of wind, providing smooth, predictable power to the world regardless of what Mother Nature throws its way. Analyzing tens of thousands of data points every second, the 2.5-120 integrates energy storage and advanced forecasting algorithms while communicating seamlessly with neighboring turbines, service technicians and customers.”
The 2.5-120 marks the culmination of a number of experiments – over the past year GE also successfully demonstrated the integration of wind power and energy storage at its facility in California. The first prototype of the 2.5-120 will be installed in the Netherlands next month.
+ GE Press Release
ViaClean Technica
