General Electric's Renewable Energy Rival Just Stepped Up Competition

General Electric's (NYSE: GE) rival Vestas Wind Systems (OTC: VWDRY) announced this week that it is launching the largest offshore wind turbine with its V236-15.0 MW. The "236" refers to the rotor diameter of 236 meters and "15.0" refers to the fact that it can produce 15 megawatts (MW) of power when operating at a normal speed.

The size of the rotor diameter puts it ahead of Siemens Gamesa's SG 14-222 DD offshore wind turbine (no prizes for guessing that it has 14 MW of output power and a rotor diameter of 222 meters) and GE's largest version of its offshore turbine Haliade-X with a rotor diameter of 220 meters and power of 14MW. Size matters because power is related to the area swept in front of it by the blades (pi times the radius squared for those of us who like math).

The offshore wind market is heating up. Image source: Getty Images.

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Source Fool.com