Rising wind revenue

GE Energy has received orders and commitments for 2005 that total 2,400 megawatts of new wind power capacity worldwide. These projects represent an anticipated increase in revenue of 300% over its first-year wind operations in 2002, the company reported recently at Windpower 2005.

From $500 million in revenue in 2002, GE Energy expects its wind energy revenue to grow to more than $2 billion this year.

Supply orders calling for 1,600 wind turbines to be installed worldwide include 1,100 wind turbines, or a total of 1,650 megawatts, for the United States. This represents 66% of the up to 2,500 megawatts of new capacity that the American Wind Energy Association has forecast for the US this year.

To support GE's wind energy growth initiatives, Robert Gleitz was named general manager of GE Energy's wind business earlier this year and will lead its new product development.

Recent milestones include the successful deployment of the industry's first offshore wind plant built by GE solely to demonstrate its offshore technology and to learn more about the rigours of wind energy installation and operations at sea.