According to Bonus technical director Henrik Stiesdal, the design is a further development of the company's 600 kW and 1 MW turbines. The 33.8 metre blades are from LM and the gearbox by Flender, the largest developed by the company for a wind turbine. Stiesdal says several prototypes will be tested along with a zero-series before the 2 MW is on the market.
The Wilhelmshaven prototype is owned and operated by Projekt-WinVest, a subsidiary of the Oldenburg planning office. The machine is to be tested for about two years before being marketed for offshore installations, says AN Windenergie of Bremen, a German affiliate of Bonus. DEWI will carry out the testing and measuring of noise emissions and output.
The choice of Germany as the testing ground for the 2 MW was not made voluntarily, says Stiesdal to Danish newspaper The Engineer. It proved impossible to find a site in Denmark which was not opposed by the authorities -- a problem facing other Danish wind companies as well.
A second new Bonus design is also being tested not far from the DEWI test field. An AN Bonus 1.3 MW with a rotor diameter of 62 metres, developed from the 1 MW machine with its 54 metre rotor diameter, was installed in December by Oldenburg-based LUV Windenergie. It is owned and operated by a subsidiary of the developer, LUV WEA-Memershausen. The machine and LM blades were supplied from Denmark while the tower was built in Germany.
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