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turbines. The
Society for Utilising Atomic Energy in Shipbuilding
and Shipping
(GKSS)
was asked to carry out tests on 10 diferent
wind turbines with rated power between 5.5 kW and 22 kW.
The inauguration was in 1980 and the testing period was from
1980 until 1983. Many of the German designs failed catastro-
phically leading the press to make fun of this test project, the
announcement of GROWIAN and the non-sense of wind energy in
general. After a series of crashes, modifications and repair, only two
machines, Brümmer and MAN, managed slightly to succeed. After
the test project ended, some companies continued development,
some stopped and others sold their designs to foreign (larger)
companies. A remarkable fact was the test of a Danish Wind
Matic 22 kW that was included in the project—with no surprise it
succeeded and operated “out of competition”.
Voith: 1981-1988
The German gear manufacturer Voith was ordered to develop and
build a medium-size wind turbine around 200-300 kW. Ulrich
Hütter was involved in Voith's design team. Thus, Voith decided to
build upon the advanced and successful W-34 (100 kW) machine
from 1954, also developed by Hütter. WEC 520, as it was called,
had two pitchable blades, a 52 m downwind rotor and both gear
and generator integrated inside the tower on the ground. Final
rated power was 270 kW.
The progressive turbine was placed at Schnittlingen, southern
Germany. Inauguration was in mid-1981. Once, during test operation,
the rotor was fully stopped—mistakenly. The consequence was
that both tips were splintered and the rotor was shortened to
45 m diameter. Test operation was continued. However, in the
mid-1980s, general interest in wind turbines was low in Germany,
what made Voith exit the wind energy sector [2]. WEC 520 was in
operation until 1989. Very short before its scrapping, the Mannheim
Museum for Engineering and Work decided to take over and keep
the machine for museum purpose.
Monopteros I: 1984-1988
Monopteros I (Greek,
single-arm) was the first
single-bladed wind turbine in the medium-size 400 kW-class. It
monopteros:
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