Your article series, The Gearbox Challenge (Windpower Monthly, November 2005) demonstrates impressively that gearbox failures are the number one problem of conventional wind turbine technology. So why is the article silent about alternative direct-drive turbine technology, which does not need a gearbox and thus avoids the number one problem?
Since 1992, German wind turbine maker Enercon has installed about 5000 wind turbines without a gearbox -- and all the Enercon wind turbines are running without gearbox problems.
The gearbox problem will occur whenever there is a gearbox.
Correction
In our article series on gearbox problems (Windpower Monthly, November 2005) we erroneously referred to Arques Industries, the owner of German gearbox manufacturer Jahnel-Kestermann, as French. Arques is, of course, a German investment firm specialised in acquisition and restructuring of companies, founded in 2003 and based in Starnberg (Windpower Monthly, July 2005).
