A 107-metre long blade for GE Renewables’ 12MW Haliade-X platform has arrived at ORE Catapult facilities in Northumberland, north-east England.
The Blade was built at LM facilities in Cherbourg, France, and will be put through its paces at the R&D centre’s blade testing rig in Blyth as GE looks to obtain type certification for its new platform.
GE is building a second nacelle for the Haliade-X in Saint Nazaire, which will be shipped to Northumberland for testing later this year.
The prototype Haliade-X unit is currently under construction in the Dutch port of Rotterdam and is due to be fully operational in October.
GE expects to complete type testing for the platform by the end of 2020, ahead of serial production in 2021.
In the next year, the blade will undergo a full range of advanced testing procedures, both static and fatigue, which will demonstrate its ability to withstand peak wind conditions and to simulate the blade’s readiness for years of operation at sea.
The Haliade-X nacelle, which is comparable to six double-decker London buses in size, will later undergo a programme that will replicate real-world operational conditions to reduce the time required to validate performance and reliability.
LM Wind Power vice president of engineering Hanif Mashal said: “LM Wind Power has broken the size record once again with this 107-meter blade. We are proud to begin its global validation programme in the UK, where we have a long term strategic partnership with ORE Catapult to test new products, including our previous record-breaking blade at 88.4 meters in length.”