Environmental Engineering Reference
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Wind power somehow seemed to fit in the mix. Allgaier
immediately employed Hütter as the senior construction designer
for his company. Not far from the company site, Allgaier in 1948 set-
up a test field where Hütter could research systematically. The first
pilot wind turbine had a diameter of 8 m and 1.3 kW output.
Hütter, a passionate designer developed the 3-blade machine
further to realise 7.2 kW output with a rotor diameter of 11.28 m.
As these systems were primarily designed for island operation, and
hence were not controlled by the grid, Hütter opted for performance
control through adjustment of the angle of airflow hitting the rotating
rotor blades called pitch regulation. He accepted that this solution
required complicated construction even for the smallest systems. On
the other hand it was possible to adjust the perfect blade angle for
each wind speed. This led to a reduction of wind loads and suited
well Hütter's lightweight construction philosophy.
From 1950 the wind turbine was produced under the name
Allgaier WE-10. It was the first serial produced wind turbine in
Germany that worked according to the aerodynamic principle.
Figure 17.2
Allgaier WE-10 turbine, Bonn (Photo: Jan Oelker, 2000).
Approximately 200 wind turbines of this type were produced in
the following decade with outputs between 6 and 10 kW, and they
sold quite nicely in Germany and abroad.
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