Credit: Rich Crowder/GE

The 3.0-3.4 MW turbine features a 140-m rotor and at a range of hub heights, including a 500 ft option and includes GE’s two-piece blade GE has today manufactured, installed and commissioned its first site of Sierra turbines, which is operating with 4 points higher capacity factor, compared to GE’s 2-MW platform.

Sierra is built on the legacy of GE’s 2-MW platform, which recently surpassed a 30-GW install base globally. The Sierra platform launched with two prototypes, one in Lubbock, Texas, and one in Kamataka, India, with more than a year of successful run time on each.

“We are absolutely delighted to introduce our Sierra platform to the North America onshore wind industry — the most tested and validated turbine in GE’s history,” said Pat Byrne, CEO of GE’s Onshore Wind business. “This is a turbine that was designed specifically for the future needs and unique challenges of the region, taking into account significant feedback and insights from our customers and wind farm developers.”

Sierra turbines will be manufactured at GE’s Pensacola, Florida manufacturing facility, with a portion of its components manufactured in North America. The 68.7-m two-piece blades are manufactured by both LM Wind Power and TPI.

“GE’s Sierra platform will help our customers to capture even more wind energy while improving economics,” said Jason Cooper, North America CEO for GE’s Onshore Wind business. “We know that wind power is a key element of driving decarbonization and a dependable and affordable energy option, and we’re confident that Sierra will be a key part of the future landscape of wind turbines installed in the U.S. in the coming years.”

GE’s Sierra platform includes a variety of key enhancements, including:

• High capacity factor turbines with reduced pads per site (+4 pts capacity factor with 15% fewer pads needed per 100 MW compared to 2 MW)
• GE’s revolutionary two-piece blade for reduced logistics, improved site installation and improved serviceability
• Simplified machine head & electrical system, built off GE’s 2 MW platform, including single main bearing, single piece down tower assembly (DTA), external pad mount transformer (PMT) and rail-shippable machine head – supporting ease of installation & serviceability
• Optimized 3 & 4 section towers for ease of transport & installation, including 500 ft tip height 81 m tower option for FAA limited sites
• Crane flexibility, optimized for readily-available 600-ton crane class to reduce cost & eliminate crane supply constraints; single blade & full rotor installation compatible
• Variety of features & accessories to support diverse siting challenges, including bat acoustic deterrent, enhanced corrosion, noise reduction mode and more
• Shared pitch bearing from GE’s legacy European platform fleet, with over a half-decade of proven field operation
• Groundbreaking serviceability enhancements, including machine head material handling system with 400kg capacity, crane-less repair technology and rear-entry hub accessibility

News item from GE Renewable Energy

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RWE Renewables has partnered with GE Renewable Energy to repower its Panther Creek III wind farm in West Texas.

The repowering of Panther Creek III includes the replacement of a significant portion of the wind turbine components, including the installation of longer blades and upgrading existing gearboxes. The refurbishment effectively increases the annual production for all 133 wind turbine generators (WTGs) on the site, having a total installed capacity of 215 MW.

The erection and commissioning of the project is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2021.

The blades that are removed during the repowering will be processed and recycled, as a part of GE Renewable Energy’s blade recycling agreement with Veolia North America. Veolia will process the blades for use as a raw material for cement, using cement kiln co-processing technology. Nearly 90% of the blade material, by weight, will be reused as a repurposed engineered material for cement production.

“GE Renewable Energy is proud to work with RWE on the Panther Creek III repower project,” said Ben Stafford, GE Renewable Energy’s services sales and commercial operations leader for onshore Americas. “Through repowering, we have the opportunity to extend the life of these turbines, while also improving the performance and reliability of the wind farm — and by sustainably recycling wind turbine blades, we are working to create a circular economy for composite materials.”

This is the third repowering project RWE has commissioned with GE Renewable Energy. Panther Creek I (142.5 MW) and Panther Creek II (115.5 MW) with a total of 172 WTGs, were repowered in the third quarter of 2019.

Panther Creek III came online in August 2009 and was the last of a three-phase project in West Texas located in Sterling, Howard and Glasscock counties.

The United States accounts for more than one-third of the RWE Group’s renewables capacity, with 27 projects in operation playing a key role in its renewables business and becoming carbon neutral by 2040.

RWE recently entered a joint venture with New England Aqua Ventus focused on floating offshore wind in the state of Maine.

News item from RWE Renewables

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A team of her coworkers had been assigned to screen employees for fevers or other signs of infection, and her job was to keep the team supplied with proper personal protective equipment, especially N95 face masks that limit the spread of the disease. Yet Shaw knew that adding to the small supply she had on hand would mean diverting masks from doctors and nurses who were in even more dire need of protection.

“There’s a supply out there for the medical community,” Shaw says, “but we didn’t want to tap into that.”

The thermoplastic polymer is flexible under high heat, but after it cools forms a strong, hard shell, which fits neatly atop the N95 masks. GE Renewable Energy.

Shaw came across a story of a couple in Virginia who were using a simple 3D printer to build plastic shields for protecting and extending the life of disposable N95 masks. Placing the protective mask shield over the N95 masks is meant to limit exposure to contaminants, potentially expanding the life of an N95 mask beyond its one-time use while supply remains constrained.

“These masks are intended to be disposable, but the CDC has guidelines on what to do in crisis situations,” Shaw said.

Shaw has experience with additive manufacturing (3D-printing) and her plant uses an industrial-grade 3D printer to make the tooling, custom-made gauges and prototype wind turbine components.

Shaw saw the idea March 22 and was able to print a prototype the next day and gave it to an on-site nurse for testing. Tiffany Craft, a senior repair engineer, heard of Shaw’s efforts and immediately began printing the mask shields.

Craft gave the shields to her emergency response team and gave some to the local hospital, and she’s also been testing multiple materials and prototyping full mask designs to provide protection. Craft’s helping build a design library where GE teams from around the world planning to 3D-print personal protection equipment can go for insights.

Soon, 20 of Shaw and Craft’s colleagues from around GE joined in the effort, coordinating their contributions to crowdsourcing improvements in the design. They included U.S.- and Hungary-based teams from GE Aviation, GE Research and GE Power.

While the initial version worked well enough, testers reported back some flaws, so designers are troubleshooting shield designs.

While additive manufacturing excels at rapid prototyping, it takes about 40 minutes to make each shield. Shaw, Craft and their colleagues are considering faster manufacturing processes that could cut production times down significantly.

News item from GE Renewable Energy

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