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already undergoing tests at the DEWI test site in Wilhelmshaven,
the firm had to fight with blade and electronic regulation
problems in numerous units of the 100 kW model. Few years
later, Ventis Energy was founded, but again went bankrupt shortly
afterwards. A last attempt was made in 2000, with Ventis AG, listed
on the stock market, but without any success at all.
18.4 
The Success Story of Wind in Germany 
The unstoppable development of wind energy in Germany was not
pure coincidence. There are a number of factors that contributed
to the rise of that new industry. The most important factors (the
ofshore aspect, last point, was added concerning future
developments) are as follows:
18.4.1 
Constant Research and Innovation
Intensive research and tests play a leading role in the German
wind energy development. Since the early 1980s, there were
huge actions undertaken in wind energy research. Most of these
federal research projects failed catastrophically, but still they
demonstrated which technical approaches were right and which
were not.
The market for wind turbines was filled with various technical
concepts. The famous test sites in Pellworm and Schnittlingen
during the 1980s and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog, since 1990, constantly
made the private sector learn lessons and led the industry find out
about those concepts existing by 2012. In Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog
alone, more than 20 diferent wind turbines underwent tests
under though conditions.
In the mid-1990s, another test site was opened at Greven-
broich, for large megawatt and multi-megawatt turbines. Until 2012
more than 10 machines (including foreign ones) have been tested.
Further work was done by the German Wind Energy Institute
(DEWI), which in the 1990s, operated an own test field at
Wilhelmshaven for machines up to 1.5 MW. In the last years, DEWI
also set up another test site close to Cuxhaven, for multi-megawatt
machines. Additional tests were carried out on a couple of wind
turbines at various sites.
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