Alstom has installed the world’s largest offshore wind turbine on Le Carnet site in the Loire-Atlantique department (Pays de la Loire region).
With 176 meters high and with 6 MW’s generating capacity, the Haliade 150 has been developed to respond to the call for tenders launched by the French government in July 2011 aimed at installing 3 GW of offshore wind power in France by 2015. This prototype will be tested for a year at Le Carnet before testing offshore from the Belgian coast. Its foundations are provided by a jacket, built at the STX shipyard in Saint-Nazaire.
The first nacelle of the Haliade 150 and the alternators were also produced in Saint-Nazaire in a temporary pre-series workshop of Alstom which is planning to produce around 40 machines over the next three years.
The Saint Nazaire future offshore wind farm will have 80 Haliade turbines with a generating capacity of 480 MW. It will be able to supply the equivalent of the electricity consumption of a city with over 700,000 inhabitants.
Video presenting Haliade 150
Sources : Alstom – EDF EN
