Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
already constitutes 37% of Germany's total primary renewable energy pro-
duction (and 50% of renewable contributions to the electricity grid).
5.3 HISTORY OF WIND POWER DEVELOPMENT IN GERMANY
he 1970s was a watershed decade in the history of modern wind power
development in Germany. Like elsewhere in Europe, a social wave of envi-
ronmental consciousness which emerged in the late 1960s began to gain
momentum in the early 1970s, thanks in part to the inluence of the
“Limits to Growth” study and enhanced awareness stemming from the
1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. By the
time the irst global oil crisis arose in 1973, there was already a high degree
of public antipathy toward nuclear power. herefore, plans put in place by
the German government (with little public consultation) to construct a
number of nuclear power plants in order to wean the nation from a depen-
dence on oil imports were met with intense public protest.
7
Opposition toward nuclear power in Germany in the 1970s played an
important role in the rise of wind power because the antinuclear protests
sired a powerful Green political party that would come to bear signiicant
inluence on national energy policy.
8
Although the irst wind farm would
not be constructed in Germany until 1987, the environmental ideology
that emerged in the 1970s framed a path for wind power development.
As the 1980s dawned, although there was still a measure of political sup-
port for nuclear power by a faction of industrial-minded policymakers, the
government perceived a clear need to diversity its policy risk by investigat-
ing alternative technologies. his precipitated an investment in wind power
R&D, the bulk of which went into the development of a huge test installation
called Growian—a 3MW turbine with a hub diameter of over 100 meters.
he design was commissioned in 1980, and the turbine became operable in
1983. It operated between 1983 and 1986; however, the project was fraught
with technical problems and by the time it was decommissioned, Growian
had spent more time shut down for repairs than in operation. he project
was a huge setback for wind power development in Germany because it was
such a technical failure. In fact, wind power in Germany would have likely
been much slower in materializing were it not for the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster in April, 1986.
he nuclear disaster in Chernobyl kicked of a technological rethink in
German energy circles, during which time German energy policymakers
began to scan the technological horizon for other feasible energy options.
9
As described in the previous chapter, in neighboring Denmark a vibrant
