US-based industrial conglomerate General Electric is now one step closer to commercializing its 12MW Haliade-X offshore wind turbine, reports Recharge News, which writes that the machine is ready for trials at the test facility in Rotterdam now that the unit has been shipped from the factory in Saint-Nazaire, France, earlier late July.

The record-rated wind turbine, with a blade length of 107 meters, has been rumored long underway and has in a slightly derogatory sense been chided as the "most powerful turbine on a Powerpoint". Back in March, though, GE entered an agreement with Vattenfall to assess the turbine's applicability.

By moving the Haliade-X to the Rotterdam test center, GE is taking one further step toward bringing the machine to market and away form the drawing board. According to Recharge, GE expects to test the unit in October and send it to market in 2021:

"We are on track to start commercializing this new product very shortly. Once we have received the type certificate (2020), we will be ready to start mass production and send out the first commercial units by mid-2021. Haliade-X 12MW is an outstanding and strategic project for GE," wrote GE Renewable Energy Offshore Wind Chief Executive John Lavelle in a statement back in July.

English Edit: Daniel Frank Christensen

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