GE Vernova’s Onshore Wind business has announced a new equipment and long-term services deal with Pattern Energy to supply 674 3.6-154 wind turbines (3.6 MW turbine with a 154 m rotor) that will provide more than 2.4 GW of power at the SunZia Wind project in New Mexico.
SunZia Wind, which is expected to be the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere at over 3.5 GW total project size, will bring GE Vernova’s installed base with Pattern Energy in North America to approximately 4.3 GW upon completion. The order, which was received in 4Q23, is the largest single onshore wind turbine order ever received by GE Vernova, both in terms of quantity of turbines and gigawatts of power generation, upon completion.
Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, said: “We are pleased to support Pattern Energy on this monumental project that reinforces the key role wind power has in delivering renewable energy to meet the growing demand for power in the Western US and in accelerating the energy transition. The project is a great example of how the policy certainty created by the IRA is helping to drive significant investments in the US wind power market. I want to congratulate our teams across GE Vernova for all the work that has and will go into bringing a project of this scale and magnitude to life.”
Vic Abate, Chief Technology Officer, GE and CEO, GE Vernova’s Wind business, added: “This project demonstrates GE Vernova’s ability to deliver on our workhorse strategy in Onshore Wind – producing fewer variants in large quantities at scale to drive quality and reliability across the fleet for our customers. We are proud to partner with our customer, Pattern Energy, on this historic project that will deliver the critical renewable energy required to meet the growing demand for power in the Western US.”
The 3.6-154 turbine is one of GE’s next generation workhorse products. Designed specifically for the US, the 3.6-154 delivers the highest efficiency in the market, with an optimised size for ease of logistics and installation. The 3.6-154 is built on the back of the 2.8-127 – the #1 turbine in the world over the last two years, according to the Woodmac 2022 OEM report, with more than 200 million operating hours of experience. The result of three years of research and development, this product is expected to bring recent innovations in turbine and blade design, including the digital blade certificate, an AI-trained blade manufacturing process designed to produce industry leading quality. The 3.6-154 launches as the most tested and validated turbine in GE’s history – a robust turbine to power the domestic energy transition.
GE Vernova and Pattern Energy’s collaboration on SunZia spans the last 18 months and includes collaborative development and supply chain work to optimise site layouts and performance while minimising unnecessary variants – following GE Vernova’s workhorse philosophy.
“We are proud to expand on our mutual installed base with GE in North America to more than 4 GW,” added Hunter Armistead, CEO of Pattern Energy. “From the beginning this was a truly collaborative approach with GE to design an optimal site that maximises turbine performance and optimises fleet consistency. Nacelles and towers for the GE turbine are being domestically produced right here in the United States, helping SunZia create thousands of new jobs in manufacturing and construction. We’re proud to be building this milestone project together with GE that will bring clean energy to 3 million Americans.”
The project will be supplied through GE Vernova’s nacelle facility in Pensacola, Florida, as well as tower manufacturing facilities in Belen, New Mexico, Pueblo, Colorado, and Amarillo, Texas, reinforcing GE Vernova’s focus on taking full ad-vantage of the Inflation Reduction Act to revitalise and enhance American manufacturing. GE Vernova announced in May of 2023 that it plans to invest US$50 million and add 200 additional union jobs as part of creating a new manufacturing assembly line for its onshore wind business in Schenectady, New York, and announced that the first turbine was produced by that facility in November of 2023.
Abate concluded: “Mega projects like SunZia, coupled with the IRA, are enabling our continued investments in wind technology, domestic manufacturing, and product quality. These investments are aiding the country’s efforts to decarbonise the electric grid in support of climate change goals.”
In support of this wind turbine mega deal, GE Vernova was able to provide Pat-tern Energy with both high-tech consulting services, and financial services that contributed to the project’s launch.
GE Vernova’s 3.6-154 turbine is one of several workhorse products that bring together focused design, efficient supply, reduced complexity, improved reliability, and bankability to offer best-in-class products. GE Vernova’s Onshore Wind business has been the number one provider of onshore wind turbine installs in the US for the last five years according to the American Clean Power Association, and currently has a fleet of more than 55 000 wind turbines installed around the world.
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Energy Global's Winter 2023 issue
The Winter 2023 issue of Energy Global hosts an array of technical articles weather analysis, geothermal solutions, energy storage technology, and more. This issue also features a regional report looking at the future of renewables in North America, and a report from Théodore Reed-Martin, Editorial Assistant, Energy Global, on how Iceland utilises its unique geology for renewable energy.