GE Mulls Building 2 New Offshore Wind Factories in New York

Clean energy conglomerate GE Renewable Energy has said that it has submitted a plan to construct two new manufacturing facilities in New York if the company wins a sufficient volume of orders from customers in the State’s ongoing solicitation for up to 4.6 GW of offshore wind.

GE said that it will be building the new factories with Carver Companies to support localized content and New York’s vision to become offshore wind manufacturing hub of the USA. These cutting-edge factories are designed to advance New York as the foundation of a clean energy economy.

Blades Facility:  Should GE receive sufficient order volume, LM Wind Power, a GE subsidiary, is ready to build a facility to manufacture offshore wind turbine blades—creating approximately 650 direct jobs, with approximately 35% of those jobs coming from disadvantaged communities.

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Nacelle Facility:  GE Vernova proposed building a factory for nacelles, which house the generating components of a wind turbine. This facility would create approximately 220 direct jobs, with approximately 35% of those jobs coming from disadvantaged communities.

The New Factories

The two facilities would produce components for the next generation of Haliade-X offshore wind turbine.  An earlier version of the Haliade-X was the first 12+ Megawatt (MW) turbine in the industry and the only one to have full type certification to operate at 14.7 MW. That model of the Haliade-X has been operating for three years and has been selected by several customers, including for the 3.6 Gigawatt (GW) Dogger Bank Wind Farm.

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The next generation model of the Haliade-X builds off the proven platform of its predecessor but contains some design changes and upgrades.

Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, said, “GE is ideally positioned to help New York secure its vision of becoming a leading manufacturing hub for offshore wind technology. Our proposal leverages GE’s unique and unparalleled expertise, resources, and track-record – including a 130-year legacy of manufacturing in New York – to make this vision a reality in a durable and sustainable way.”

The proposal of GE includes specific commitments to hire and train new employees from economically disadvantaged communities.  For example, the company will launch an outreach program called Pathways to Wind to provide historically under-served communities exposure, education, and training in the emerging offshore wind industry.

The company said that its approach to environmental compliance and mitigation will help to ensure that the development and operation of the facilities will satisfy all federal, state, and local laws.