"The acquisition of ScanWind is an important step in our strategy to place GE in a strong position in the growing offshore wind segment,” says Victor Abate, Vice President 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.”

Reliability and maintainability are particularly important in offshore wind applications, where project economics are strongly affected by wind turbine design adnd reliability, Abate adds.

Headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, with a design-engineering centre in Karlstad, Sweden, ScanWind was founded in 1999 to develop and commercialise advanced drive train wind turbine technology that eliminates the need for gearboxes. ScanWind’s 41 employees have designed and developed 11 turbines operating on the Norwegian coast.

For the EU member states to reach their renewable energy targets by 2020, analysts predict major investments in European offshore wind projects. Industry experts anticipating a 20-fold global increase, from an installed base of 1.5 GW in 2008 to 30 GW by 2020.