Then we visited an EnerCon (www.enercon.de) manufacturing plant, where they manufacture 330kW - 4.5MW wind generators for the European market. It was such a surprise to learn that EnerCon uses very similar alternator technology as Abundant Renewable Energy, my former workplace (www.AbundantRE.com) -- gearless, direct-drive, variable speed generators. I went into the factory expecting to see a new technology, and it looked almost identical to the equipment I'm already familiar with (albeit on a mammoth scale)! The football-field length blades -- fitted with individual heating systems -- were a sight to see too.
Then we drove to a wind farm and climbed the spiral staircase of a 2MW turbine's tower to the observation deck (at the 65-meter / 213' hub height) to see a good view of the rest of the wind farm and to check out the turbine's guts -- very cool.
2-MW EnerCon wind turbine
View from the top of wind turbine's lookout deck (that's part of its blade swinging past)
Another view of wind farm from the lookout deck
For lunch, we stopped at a fish-n-chips joint on the North Sea, which was the only disappointing part of the trip. I'd planned to dip a toe into the North Sea (just to say I'd done it)... but the coast (at least where we were) was just muddy (not sandy) for a good 200 yards before the actual water-line began. I'm sure if we'd waited, the tide would've brought the sea closer, but alas, we had to load the bus and head south. En route back to Oldenburg, we stopped at a little harbor village (photo below) and a wind turbine testing/research facility, where they do comparisons between the big turbines from various manufacturers.
North Sea harbor in a nearby town
One-bladed turbine at wind turbine testing facility (theoretically, a one-bladed turbine seemed like a good idea to the designers... but in practice, it rarely rotated)
