Few days ago an Enercon E-16 arrived at the depot of the Mühlheide Windpower Museum. The machine – rated at 55kW with a 16m rotor – stems from Norden/ East Frisia and was one out of five machines that comprised one of the first wind farms in Germany in 1987.

Even for Enercon the wind farm owned by Stadtwerke Norden (utility) was one of the first bigger orders. The same year five E-16 were placed at a wind farm in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog (Windenergiepark Westküste) and ten units were installed at a wind farm in Nordholz near Cuxhaven.

The E-16 was Enercon’s first commercial success and was produced from 1987 til 1990.

Thus, the club managed to save a unit from Enercon’s early beginnings and from a German pioneering wind farm – long before the EEG (energy law) came up and Enercon went into gearless wind turbine production.

Mühlheide Windpower Museum is keen on saving further wind turbine types made by Enercon.