 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Wind |
| Founded | 1940 |
| Founders | Ejner Lorentzen Aage Skouboe |
| Headquarters | Kolding, Denmark |
Key people | Olivier Fontan (CEO) |
| Products | Wind turbine blades |
| Owner | GE Vernova (2017-present) |
Number of employees | ~14,000 |
| Parent | GE Wind |
| Website | www |
LM Wind Power (formerly LM Glasfiber [1] ) is a Danish manufacturer of wind turbine blades, and a subsidiary of GE Vernova. [2]
LM Wind Power was founded in 1940, as Lunderskov Møbelfabrik (Lunderskov furniture factory) in the small town Lunderskov, Denmark. [3] In 1952, they investigated the possibilities of commercial exploitation of glass fiber technology, which made them change their name to LM Glasfiber and abandon their original plan of manufacturing wooden furniture. It was not until 1978 they started making wind turbine blades. [4]
On 11 June 2010, LM Wind Power took part in setting an aviation record. They commissioned the An-225 to carry the world's longest piece of air cargo, as it flew two new 42-meter wind turbine blades from their factory in Tianjin, China, to their test facility in Lunderskov, Denmark. [5]
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(February 2023) |
LM Wind Power employed approximately 4,505 employees worldwide at the end of 2014. [6] The company is headquartered in Kolding, Denmark and has a global business office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. LM Wind Power has built production facilities in the major wind energy markets – 13 locations in 8 countries (Denmark, Spain, United States, Canada, India, China, Poland and Brazil). In addition to this, the company has a global network of R&D Centres in Denmark, the Netherlands, and India.
From 2001 to 2017, the main stakeholders of LM Wind Power were investment partnerships organized by Doughty Hanson & Co. Ltd., presenting LM as the largest independent blade provider globally. [7] In April 2017, GE Renewable Energy purchased LM Wind Power for a total cost of €1.5 billion. [8] This acquisition facilitated GE's ability to distribute wind energy to customers around the world.
Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.
Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Australia, China, Brazil, Poland and the United States, and employs 29,000 people globally.
Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind. Wind-powered machines used to grind grain and pump water — the windmill and wind pump — were developed in what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan by the 9th century. Wind power was widely available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in arid regions such as the American midwest or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for livestock and steam engines.
Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers such as Vestas—the world's largest wind-turbine manufacturer—along with many component suppliers. Furthermore, Denmark has—as of 2022—the 2nd highest amount in the world of wind power generation capacity installed per capita, behind only neighboring Sweden.
The Tehachapi Pass wind farm is one of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S., with around 710 megawatts (950,000 hp) produced by about 3400 wind turbines.
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. From January through December 2023, 425.2 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.18% of electricity in the United States. The average wind turbine generates enough electricity in 46 minutes to power the average American home for one month. In 2019, wind power surpassed hydroelectric power as the largest renewable energy source in the U.S.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A. was formed in 2017 in a merger of Siemens' Wind Power division with Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, S.A.; it is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. The company has two other main sites in Spain: one in Madrid and the other in Sarriguren. Other than its headquarters, its onshore business is primarily based in Spain, while the offshore business is based in Germany and Denmark. It is the world's second largest wind turbine manufacturer behind Vestas.
China is the world leader in wind power generation, with the largest installed capacity of any nation and continued rapid growth in new wind facilities. With its large land mass and long coastline, China has exceptional wind power resources: Wind power remained China's third-largest source of electricity at the end of 2021, accounting for 7.5% of total power generation.
The renewable-energy industry is the part of the energy industry focusing on new and appropriate renewable energy technologies. Investors worldwide have paid greater attention to this emerging industry in recent years. In many cases, this has translated into rapid renewable energy commercialization and considerable industry expansion. The wind power, solar power and hydroelectric power industries provide good examples of this.
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. As of 2020, hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wind turbines are an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy, and are used in many countries to lower energy costs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. One study claimed that, as of 2009, wind had the "lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and the most favorable social impacts" compared to photovoltaic, hydro, geothermal, coal and gas energy sources.
As of May 2024, wind power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of 11,611 MW, 40.9% of which is based offshore. In 2022, the wind turbines provided the country with 18.37% of its electricity demand during the year. Windmills have historically played a major part in the Netherlands by providing an alternative to water driven mills.
GE Offshore Wind is a joint venture with Alstom and a subsidiary of GE Vernova, created in 2015 when most of Alstom's electrical power and generation assets were acquired by General Electric. GE's stake in the joint venture is 50% plus 1 share.
GE Wind is a division of GE Vernova. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE Wind was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. Vic Abate is the CEO of GE Vernova’s Wind businesses.
Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain, the Netherlands today lags 21 of the 26 other member states of the European Union in the consumption of energy from renewable sources. In 2022, the Netherlands consumed just 15% of its total energy from renewables. According to statistics published by Eurostat, it was the last among the EU countries in the shift away from global warming-inducing energy sources. The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass, wind, solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power. In 2018 decisions were made to replace natural gas as the main energy source in the Netherlands with increased electrification being a major part of this process.
The Vestas V164 is a three-bladed offshore wind turbine, produced by Vestas, with a nameplate capacity of up to 10 megawatts, a world record. Vestas revealed the V164's design in 2011 with the first prototype unit operated at Østerild in northern Denmark in January 2014. The first industrial units were installed in 2016 at Burbo Bank, off the west coast of the United Kingdom. By 2021, Vestas had produced 500 of the series.
Henrik Stiesdal is a Danish inventor and businessman in the modern wind power industry. In 1978, he designed one of the first wind turbines representing the so-called "Danish Concept" which dominated the global wind industry through the 1980s. Until 2014, Stiesdal was the chief technology officer of Siemens Wind Power. During his professional career, Stiesdal has made more than 175 inventions and has received more than 650 patents related to wind power technology.
GE Renewable Energy is a manufacturing and services division of the American company General Electric. It is headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France and focuses on the production of energy systems that use renewable sources. Its products include wind, hydroelectric and solar power generating facilities.
