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this project. The low density of energy and the unsteady wind
conditions did not match the hard-set concepts of energy suppliers.
The establishment in politics and industry was fixed on nuclear
power, and did not see wind energy as a serious form of alternative
energy. BMFT was convinced this sceptic attitude could be over-
come only with a very big system.
There was a lot of political prestige on stake with GROWIAN.
The Ministry knew of the plans of Boeing for building a system
of 91 m rotor diameter, and wanted to exceed it. The goal of BMFT
seemed to be proving the international competitiveness of the
German industry. The biggest wind power station in the world was
to be built in Germany by all means. This outlined the road to
GROWIAN. BMFT appointed the Nuclear Research Centre Jülich
GmbH (KFA) as general manager. The realisation of the project and
the coordination of all involved companies and institutions were
contracted to MAN Neue Technologien GmbH in Munich.
The research institutes in Stuttgart also were on board. The
Research Institute for Wind Energy Technology (FWE) at the
University of Stuttgart had been set-up for Hütter's wind energy
studies and it took over the calculation of aerodynamic perfor-
mance. The Institute of Structure and Design (DLR) at DFVLR, also
under his direction, was responsible for the construction of rotor
blades. Hütter's colleague Franz-Xaver Wortmann, Professor at the
Institute of Aerodynamics and Gasdynamics (IAG) at the University
of Stuttgart, took over the calculation and optimisation of the blade
profiles.
However, during the project phase to deliver construction
drawings to build GROWIAN there was a collision of interests
between the client BMFT, Hütter as the brain giving ideas, and
engineers of company MAN. Hütter's engineers favoured rotor
blades in composite construction made of glass-fibre compound
or carbon-fibre compound. In the last 15 years before the project
they had gathered a lot of experience with composite materials,
and they appreciated the benefits of what was then still quite a
new material. They proposed to reduce the rotor diameter, or at
least to design a test rotor blade. BMFT refused both for reasons of
time and budget, and insisted on a rotor diameter of at least 100 m.
The mechanical engineers from MAN in Munich shied away from
this step as they had too little experience with fibre-compound
materials.
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