A wave of giant turbines appears set to define the offshore windenergy industry for the next decade. The first of its kind, the Haliade-X turbine—designed and built by GE Renewable Energy, headquarteredin Paris, France—stands 260 m tall, with a rotor 220 m indiameter, its 107 m blades sweeping an area of 38 000 m2 (Fig. 1).The prototype, built on the harbourside in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

(Fig. 2), was initially a 12 MW machine, since optimised to13 MW. Industry certified in November 2020, the turbine producedits first milliwatt hour of electricity in November 2019. The companyclaims the Haliade-X can produce 45% more energy thanany other offshore wind turbine currently in production, generatingup to 67 GWh annually, enough to power 16 000 homes [1].