Environmental Engineering Reference
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the state, failed against barefoot research and development which
carried wind power through to a commercial success.
Towards the end of the 1980s, I was invited to lecture on the
Danish wind power adventure at the research centre of Espoo in
Finland. David Lindley, director of WEG, was the other lecturer from
abroad.
The Finns had some confidence in me, as I had been an advisor
at the gear manufacturer Valmet. I sensed they were interested in
having a windmill industry of their own. However, Lindley spent
all his energy in trying to convince the Finns that the Danish
concept was atypical and technologically too primitive, with many
rather small suppliers, whereas his company aimed at research
and professionalism.
Apparently, Lindley must have been a more convincing
speaker. The Finns bought a WEG wind turbine and gathered the
same bad experience as other WEG customers. The customers never
returned; and without customers, no industry. This is part of the
story why Denmark has a wind power industry, whereas England
got none and has to buy almost all its equipment from abroad.
A story like the one told here about DWT can also be found in
other countries, which invested enormous amounts of money in
the development of giant wind turbines. The people in the state
administrations systematically avoided giving financial support
to anything just a little similar to the Danish J. Juul concept. The
technology had no scientific potential and was not leading to
technological innovation—were the answers to the applicants,
who then changed their minds to satisfy the program evaluators
and wrote new applications with concepts just as unfortunate as
those of DWT and WEG.
In the United States, Boeing, Westinghouse and others, took
part in the development of new wind turbines. In Germany the big
corporation MAN took leadership, while having DM 100 million
at their disposal for a single wind turbine—GROWIAN, as the big
wind power plant was called. After 200 hours of testing, it was
scrapped. Similar stories could be told about the Swedish giants
Maglearp and Näsudden.
3
3
See chapter
Networks of Wind Energy Enthusiasts and the Development of the
“Danish Concept”
by Katherine Dykes.
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