Offshore Wind Power Center Launched by Gamesa, Northrop Grumman

The first of the offshore wind turbines would be deployed in North America by late next year. Bob McDonnell, the Governor of Virginia, commented that Virginia was delighted to be in the place where the two industrial giants would unite for offshore wind innovation. All the attributes needed for an optimal location for the purpose of offshore wind energy production and thus become the epicenter for the East Coast wind supply chain were available in Virginia.

With similar goals, the Northrop Grumman-Gamesa partnership is to develop the National Offshore Wind Technology Center in Hampton Roads. The center’s opening would add to the alliance formed in October for the launching of Gamesa’s first G11X-5.0 MW offshore prototype in the US, which is a blend of Northrop’s wide experience in taxing marine environments and Gamesa’s multi megawatt technology.

The partnership has built a team of 50 engineers, whose focus is on developing the G11X-5.0 MW prototype in the US and who would also supervise the design and development of the wind turbine along with the testing of the prototypes. Their immediate target is to deploy one onshore and one offshore Gamesa G11X-5.0 MW offshore prototype for a detailed validation testing by the end of 2012.

Dirk Matthys, CEO and Chairman of Gamesa North America mentions that they were on the lookout for a partner capable of matching up to Gamesa’s high performance standards for the marine environments and in Northrop they had found the ideal partner. This venture would help Gamesa to use its r technology for designing the first generation of offshore wind systems for generation of sustainable and clean energy. Matthys put great store on the partnership ensuring an integrated design approach and logistics support, which would handle the main concerns of the market such as low maintenance, turbine reliability and service requirements while generating low cost electricity.

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