Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Women's Wind Farm in Lübow is a wind farm in which
the whole system of the realisation of the project, that is, of
systematic planning, of construction, and system of the operation—
was and still is in the hands of women. Involvement or investment
in this project was always allowed for all townspeople. It is a
citizens' wind farm.
Systematic planning—what an overblown concept, especially
without even a telephone connection in the house. In East
Germany before the reunification, telephone lines were like
bananas—scarce goods. After having returned the borrowed and
really heavy wireless telephone to
Ulrich Jochimsen, I was left
with the neighbour's telephone. Standing in the corridor, I used
the phone to gather information on the characteristics of wind
turbines, preliminary construction enquiries, legal regulations for
the construction in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, planning conditions
for wind energy facilities in protected areas, etc. I can vividly
remember the late-night discussions concerning the selection of
the wind turbine company to deliver our equipment.
“We take Vestas”, that was the majority decision of all those in
our team who took part in the discussion. The wind power
equipment of the Danish company Vestas was already well
established on the market in those days. Asynchronous machines
with a gearbox—robust, already proven and tested in Denmark.
Also Nordex with their tubular towers were discussed. Enercon
deviated from the traditional concept of asynchronous machines.
They did not need a gearbox, did not need tons of steel lifted up to
the nacelle. Enercon uses a ring generator—a synchronous machine
that generates AC power. The control system includes an inverter
which at any wind speed rectifies the fluctuating voltage and
frequency. The DC power is then inverted in thyristor inverters
at the bottom of the tower and transformed into AC power with
normal grid voltage and frequency.
The first wind turbine manufacturer of the world, Enercon, was
in those days able to ofer a power grid certificate. The technical
principle was not so new for me, since I knew this from my long-
standing research at the Technical University in Wismar, from
common three-phase shaft generators on ships and the principle
of high-tension DC power transmission (HGÜ) which I was lucky
enough to experience in Mozambique at the Cabora Bassa Dam.
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