A few days ago, GE Renewable Energy announced that it has launched the Cypress platform, the largest wind turbine on land, and successfully completed its installation in Wieringermeer, the Netherlands. The company said that the successful operation of the prototype is an important milestone on its commercialization path, which not only lowered the electricity price, but also has greater freedom in the location of the wind turbine.
The Cypress 5.3 MW prototype was installed at the end of 2018 and officially started generating electricity in February this year. GE will continue to run and debug this prototype in the next few months to verify the performance of Cypress platform. The test results also support the acquisition of certifications, so this is an important step in the commercialization of this model.
The Cypress platform can be matched with multi-level wind turbines and towers of different heights, and can be matched with suitable wind turbine solutions according to specific site selection needs, thereby achieving lower wind power costs. especially important.
GE announced in September 2017 that the Cypress platform will use a two-stage fan blade design in order to use longer blades and enable fans to be located in a wider area. Larger blade lengths can increase the annual power generation (AEP), thereby reducing the level of electricity cost (LCOE). At the same time, the proprietary blade design enables high-power wind turbines to be installed in areas that were previously inaccessible.
It is worth mentioning that the two-stage carbon fiber blade design of GE is of revolutionary significance for the development of wind turbines in the future. Not only can the length of the blades that can be produced be longer, but more importantly, it can also improve the transportation conditions of the blades and significantly reduce the transportation costs. At the same time, the two-segment blade design can flexibly select the style of the blade tip segment according to the actual wind conditions of the wind farm and the user's needs, improving the user's customized experience.