Many people know that GE Transportation builds locomotives for rail industry around the globe. What many don’t know is that Transportation utilizes its experience and technical expertise of various locomotive systems and tailors them to meet the demands of other rugged industries.
Since 2002, GE Transportation has been working in the growing wind industry to provide large megawatt gearboxes including one of the industry’s standard, the 1.5MW gearbox.
The gearbox in a wind turbine converts the slow, high-torque rotation of the turbine blades into much faster rotation of the electric generator that is turned into power and sent to the grid. The gearbox weighs approximately 30,000 pounds and is placed at the top of the tower in the part of the turbine called the nacelle.
GE Transportation’s sister company GE Energy manufactures complete wind turbines and ships them around the globe.
