Overview of German Wind Industry Roots - Wind Power for the World: The Rise of Modern Wind Energy - page 430

and Technology (FMRT) decided to start a support program for
100 MW installed capacity across the whole federal republic—privat
wind projects, that is, single turbines and wind farms were
receiving subsidies. This program was started in 1989. The scheduled
capacity of 100 MW was quickly reached due to a very large
demand for small and medium wind turbines up to 300 kW.
Hence, the support program was extended to 250 MW in the
years to come. A second even more important event was the 1991
“Stromeinspeisungsgesetz” (“Law on feeding electricity into the
grid”). It secured a minimum pay for produced electricity, enabled
smaller producers to connect to the grid and sell their power to
larger utilities. The law and various state incentives strongly
accelerated wind development.
Motivated by a growing market, lucrative subsidies and a rising
acceptance of wind energy, more companies entered the market.
Wind energy slowly lost the negative image from which it badly
sufered in the 1980s. For some areas, especially in the economically
weaker northern parts of Germany, the new industry created jobs
and gave additional source of income. For politicians the new source
of energy became more and more interesting to deal with, what
partially resulted in a strong political backing.
In the 1990s, competition seriously rose on the market. Now the
leading factors were rated power, reliability and economics. Thus,
wind turbines grew faster and faster. In 1993, all major companies
had a serial machine around 500/600 kW on the market. HSW,
for example, was the first to even introduce a 750 kW model the
same year. Only three years later the fight for the MW-class began!
The first Germans to introduce a 1.5 MW prototype in 1995-1996
were Enercon and Tacke. The following year the first wind farms
were equipped with MW-turbines.
The high speed of ever-growing wind turbines had a “market
consolidation” as a consequence. Since 1993, a couple of companies
either left the wind business or went bankrupt. They were not able
to compete with the other established firms in terms of financial
and technological power. Furthermore, technological development
crystallised into one technical concept: three blades, upwind, pitch-
regulated, tubular tower. With few exceptions and modifications,
this technical concept survived until the recent years.
A supply chain was also created. It involved mainly blade
manufacturers but other component producers as well. Hence,