Despite a deceleration in the development of new wind turbines by Western manufacturers, the reality is that all of them are working on prototypes for their new onshore wind power models.
Enercon and Vestas, who are working on the E-175 EP5 E1 and V172-7.2MW™ respectively. Nordex, for its part, has also recently installed the N175/6.X prototype in Germany.
Once again, the German manufacturer has chosen an interesting approach for installing this prototype. Instead of doing it at a testing center (similar to Østerild in Denmark or Alaiz in Spain), it has been done at a community-owned wind farm, suggesting that some agreement was reached with the owners.
This is similar to the N155/5.X prototype installed in Navarra following an agreement with RWE. It’s a way to reduce the cost of prototype development, which is not insignificant.
The prototype is installed on a 112 meter tubular steel tower, and next fall, a second prototype of 179 meters will be installed on a hybrid concrete-steel tower.
