Haliade-X 12 MW Project Triggers Hiring Spree in France

GE Renewable Energy plans to recruit more than 200 employees at its LM Wind Power wind turbine blade manufacturing site in Cherbourg, France.

60 out of the additional employees were recently recruited and just began intensive training at the factory’s ‘Center of Excellence’.

Opened in April 2018, the Cherbourg facility became the first wind turbine blade manufacturing site in France. A year later, the site counted 120 employees, 34 percent of whom are women.

Prototyping phase began in January 2019, when the teams started the production of five 107-meter blades, the largest in the world, set to be installed on GE’s Haliade-X 12 MW offshore wind turbine, the most powerful one to date. While, in Saint-Nazaire, France, GE is producing the Haliade-X’s nacelles.

Two blades will be shipped to testing facilities, and three will be assembled to the Haliade-X prototype site in Rotterdam. The expanded production workforce will allow LM Wind Power to prepare the blades commercial production phase, GE Renewable Energy said.

“A significant part of the employees at our site today are from the region of Normandy,” said Erwan Le Floch, the site Director. “We are proud to take part in the region’s social and economic development, and we are happy to create more jobs in the surrounding community this year.”

Mostly looking for production workforce, the positions are open to all profiles and backgrounds, as every new employee will be trained to manufacture wind turbine blades through LM Wind Power’s ‘Center of Excellence’ training program, the company said.

Each new employee will receive a six-week theoretical and practical training course and be mentored by experts from the company’s sites worldwide. The site will also be looking for production supervisors, quality controllers, logistic and maintenance technicians, as well as apprentices’ positions.

“This project creates enthusiasm as the factory is ramping-up, and we have witnessed a significant combination of efforts as we use the expertise from our facilities worldwide to train the people in Cherbourg,” said Lukasz Cejrowski, LM 107.0 P Project Manager. “The teams are excited to have produced the first blade in the world longer than 100 meters. We are welcoming new people with diverse backgrounds, and at the same time, we are building a new blade of a size we have never achieved before.”