GE Closes Acquisition of ScanWind

“The acquisition of ScanWind is an important step in our strategy to place GE in a strong position in the growing offshore wind segment,” said Victor Abate, VP of Renewable Energy for GE Energy, at the European Offshore Wind Conference in Stockholm. “We are impressed by ScanWind’s simple, solid, reliable design and by the team of people who developed it."

Headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, with a design-engineering center in Karlstad, Sweden, ScanWind was founded in 1999 to develop and commercialize advanced drive train wind turbine technology that eliminates the need for gearboxes. ScanWind currently has 11 turbines operating on the Norwegian coast demonstrating the reliability and performance of the technology.

The ScanWind turbine technology will join GE’s family of wind turbines that includes the GE 1.5-megawatt series, the most widely deployed wind turbine in the world with more than 12,000 now in operation. The GE wind portfolio also includes the 2.5 MW series wind turbine, proven in European applications and now also available in North America.

RenewableEnergyWorld.com Wind Technology Correspondent Eize de Vries took a closer look at the details of the acquisition, as well as ScanWind's technology when the deal was first announced this summer.