Danish Wind Turbines Take Unfortunate Turn

The world’s largest producer of wind turbines, and the whole idea of large-scale wind energy itself, suffered a setback this summer with news that all the turbines at Denmark’s Horns Rev (Reef)—the biggest offshore wind farm built to date—would be moved to shore for repair and replacement of defective transformers and generators.

The original article is available on the IEEE spectrum website (November issue, for members only):

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/spectrum/nov04/departments/1104nwind.html
Vestas Wind System A/S in Ringkøbing blamed harsh sea conditions for the substandard performance of equipment supplied by ABB Ltd., the Swedish-Swiss energy conglomerate headquartered in Zurich. The generator and transformer problems made it necessary to retrofit all 81 of the 2-megawatt turbines, at considerable expense.