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was placed in Bremerhaven-Weddewarden, northern Germany.
Test operation began in 1984. Federally funded, this machine
was designed and built by Messerschmidt Bölko Blohm (MBB) of
Munich. The 30 m rotor had a pitchable blade running downwind.
Yawing was active. In 1985 a massive failure of the whole
machine occurred that ended with the runaway of a part of the
blade. The wind turbine was never put back into operation and
the test program was ceased in 1988.
Like GROWIAN, Monopteros I badly damaged public perception
and image of wind energy in Germany and led to a rising disinterest
in this new technology.
GROWIAN: 1983-1988
The 3 MW GRoße WIndenergie ANlage (GROWIAN) was the most
famous, most discussed and criticised German federal research
project in the wind energy sector.
GROWIAN was actually supposed to be a test machine for later
serial production. On the one hand, Germany should have had a
strong symbol for its will to support renewable energy. On the other
hand, a competitive product was to be created to make Germany
play a major role in the aspiring new wind industry.
The 100 m two-bladed downwind machine, placed at
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog, northern Germany, was inaugurated in
October 1983. But in 1984, the teetered hub construction proofed
wrong and forced the turbine to remain inoperative, which was
the case for most of the time. For uncountable times engineers
had to carry out repairs, modifications or other attempts to bring
GROWIAN back to operation.
Meanwhile GROWIAN became a symbol for failing German
technology. It was heavily criticised by various industry experts,
right from the beginning, for its size and overall concept. The
German press constantly reported about the “event” and the “big
wind failure”.
Showing that wind turbines are non-sense was the hidden
intention of the government, some argued. Whatever engineers
decided to do, they were unable to keep the turbine running.
Hence, for a couple of years it seemed doubtless that wind
does not work and the focus should be on conventional energy
resources.
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