Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
engineering and technology of the modern wind power stations we
know today.
17.5
Changes of Interest
The W-34 was to be the preliminary highlight of Hütter's work
on the field of wind energy use. When he took over the chair for
aircraft construction in 1959 at what was then the Technical College
of Stuttgart, he made sure the tests in Stötten were continued, but
they were only of academic value. At that time the energy industry
and politics had lost interest in further research or even serial
production of wind power plants. The power generation costs
from the use of wind could no longer compete with electricity based
on fossil fuels after the victorious march of cheap oil had begun in
the late fifties. The power grids were continuously improved and
the capacities of power stations fired with fossil fuels were
continuously enhanced. The main reason however was that many
politicians and energy managers saw nuclear power as the perfect
energy source for the future.
Under these premises, company Allgaier no longer could see
any economic potential in the construction of wind turbines and
in 1959 fully withdraw from this business segment. WEG too
cancelled financing of further tests. After the Studiengesellschaft
Windkraft had decided to unwind the association early in October
1964 the board of the association transferred the test field in
Stötten as its heritage to the German Test and Research Institute
for Aviation and Space Flight (DFVLR) in Stuttgart, where Hütter
had been appointed the vice president recently. Soon, however,
DFVLR too lost interest in the test field. Research was costly, and
the institute was no longer willing to pay the rent for the land.
“Considering that one litre of oil costs only four Pfennig, wind
power was not really attractive at that time,” Armbrust remembers
the premature end of wind power research.
Therefore the W-34 was scraped in 1968. The village smith
from the near-by village of Schnittlingen set out to disassemble
the system. It was a sad moment for Sepp Armbrust, but at least he
was able to save one blade of the W-34. Armbrust organised a long
timber transporter, paid it out of his travel cost budget, and had the
blade transported to Stuttgart. For some years he stored it in the
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