Beginning February 29, the trial lasted 200 hours. GE’s first direct-drive offshore wind turbine passed this reliability run on its first attempt with 99.05% availability. Wind speed varied during the trial run from zero to rated wind, resulting in a capacity factor of 35.3%.
“The variation in wind speed gives the team confidence that the turbine performs reliably under all wind conditions,” says Vincent Schellings, Offshore Product Manager for GE Energy. “Now we will begin validating the design and obtain initial results before summer. Our initial focus will be on the power curve and loads validation as evidence that our simulations meet the measurements of the two performance characteristics that matter most to our customers.”
The test run was successfully completed in March. “We are very proud to support our city and our country towards the goal of producing more green energy. Due to great teamwork of our team together with GE and Chalmers University we can celebrate this important milestone”, said Jonas Cognell, director of Renewable Electricity at Göteborg Energi.
