The result compares to a $77 million profit in Q1 2018.
"Segment profit was negatively impacted by liquidated damages and contract terminations in 2018," GE explained in its financial release.
"Excluding those items, the business was still down year over year, principally driven by higher R&D investment for the Haliade-X, tariffs, JV consolidation, and pricing. This was partially offset by cost productivity and higher volume," the company added without giving further details.
Revenue in the business segment also fell 3% to $1.6 billion in the period January to March 2019, compared to $1.65 billion a year earlier.
The fall in revenue would have been more but was offset by growth in its services division, GE said. Orders increased slightly, increasing 1% in monetary terms to $2.45 billion.
Onshore wind turbine orders by MW also increased 13% to 2.66GW.
"We continue the pace of our R&D investments and are seeing significant progress in technology as a result. We achieved notable milestones in both our Haliade-X and Cypress platforms in the quarter," said GE Renewable Energy CEO, Jérôme Pécresse.
"Pricing continues to stabilise as the industry ramps up for PTC-driven deliveries this year and next.
"We have a very strong delivery schedule for the next three quarters and we remain on track to deliver on guidance for the year," he added.
