ENERCON

What they do

ENERCON develops, builds, installs and services onshore wind turbines. Founded by the engineer Aloys Wobben in Aurich in July 1984, it started with a 55 kW machine and has worked its way up to multi-megawatt turbines with rotor diameters of 175 metres.

Service is a large part of the business. Turbines run for decades, and ENERCON maintains its fleet with its own technicians, an approach that keeps engineering knowledge and operating data close to the designers.

Why it matters

The company's defining choice came in 1993 with the E-40, which used a direct drive with no gearbox. Gearboxes are a frequent source of wear and failure in wind turbines, and removing them changed the maintenance profile of the machine. ENERCON still treats the gearless design as a core feature, and it extended the concept into the multi-megawatt class with the E-112 in 2002.

As Europe pushes to add onshore wind capacity quickly, turbines that are reliable, serviceable and suited to inland sites with modest wind speeds are central to the energy transition rather than a niche product.

Products to know

• E-175 EP5: the current large platform for inland sites.
• E-160 EP5 E3: a high-yield turbine in the EP5 family.
• E-138 EP3 E3: a smaller-rotor platform suited to tighter sites.
• E-82: introduced in 2005 and, according to the company, still its most common installation.

The German angle

ENERCON grew up in East Frisia, a flat and windy corner of Lower Saxony near the North Sea, and it remains headquartered there. Its rise mirrored Germany's early backing for renewable power, which created a home market for wind energy before most other countries.

Ownership is unusual. In 2012 Wobben transferred all his shares to the Aloys Wobben Stiftung, which is now the sole owner of the holding company that controls the group. The arrangement is meant to keep the company independent and its profits in the business, a model shared with several other German industrial groups.