On November 26th 1977 the first set of Økær blades was delivered to Svend Adolphsen. Svend was an electrician and mechanic, and had a small shop. He was very innovative. Turbine on the photo is the prototype with 4.5 m blades. The following turbines used 5 meter blades.

For more information see the Blade Story.

ERINI company was owned by Blacksmith Erik Nielsen, Herning, who was a former sub supplier to Christian Riisager. Erini used welded Steel blades for his own turbine design, but he used the same basic design as chosen by Riisager, inspired by Johannes Juul's GEDSER design.

Turbine designed by Karl Erik Jørgensen and Henrik Stiesdal.

On July 1st of 1978, Økær Vind Energi delivered the first 5 m blades for the Herborg Vindkraft prototype.

The first prototype was 22 kW. The next 6 Turbines fabricated were 30 kW models.

Karl Erik sadly passed away on October 2nd 1982 after serious illness.

In 1979 Herborg Vindkraft entered into a license agreement with nearby company Vestas, who until then was most known for their farm equipment.

For more information about Herborg Vindkraft see Blade Story.

After 1986:

The Vestas company was a well reputed company fabricating farm equipment, hydraulic truck cranes and cooling systems. This undoubtly helped the sales of Turbines to Danish farmers.

In 1979 Vestas signed a license agreement with Herborg Vindkraft, which transferred the Herborg Vindkraft (HVK) design to Vestas.

Prior to this, Vestas had performed experiments with a 15 kW Biblade Darrieus Turbine. Engineer Leon Bjervig designed this sturdy Darrieus Turbine. Vestas was then producing Farm equipment, Truck-Cranes and cooling systems. Bjervig convinced Vestas, that this was an interesting working field and they carried out experiments with different Rotor concepts for the Turbine. In fall 1979 Vestas abandoned the Darrieus design and entered into a license agreement for a horizontal axis Turbine design developed by nearby Herborg Vindkraft (Karl Erik Jørgensen). For more information see Blade Story.

The 55 kW Vestas HVK 15 became the workhorse for their first sales in California in 1983 - 85. . In 1982 Vestas began development of their own blade make. The first design to use these blades were the V17 75 kW Turbine. For the 55 kW Turbines Vestas still used AeroStar 7.5 m blades in 1985.

Keypersons in the Wind Power branch of Vestas, in early years: Finn M. Hansen, Birger T. Madsen, Per Krogsgaard (Sales) and Jørgen Thirstrup Pedersen (Engineer).

From 1988 Vestas also developed pitch controlled turbines, starting with the 200 kW V 25.

Vestas Turbines developed in the next years:

Hereafter MegaWatt Turbines were designed.

Febrary 1989 Danish Wind Technology was merged with Vestas. The Vestas company name was, for a period, changed to Vestas, Danish Wind Tedchnology A/S. Later it became: Vestas Wind Systems A/S.

For Vestas, the interest in the merger was DWT's experience with "large machines" (See Volund and DWT below) .

The 1. of May 1979 Windmatic began fabricating the Riisager design. The blades had a load carrying wood spar and fibreglass skin. Cavities were filled with Polyurethane foam. Blades were stayed. The blades had been fabricated for some years by LM Glasfiber as in the Riisager designed shapes.

*) In 1982 a new productline was added to the Windmatic family: The first blades designed by LM Glasfiber A/S was adapted, and also tubular (shell) towers were added to the line of lattice towers.

New designs of WM 15S (60 kw) Ø 15.5 m dia. and WM 19S (120 kW) Ø 19 m dia.

Also a 8 meter diameter 11 kW "Folkemølle" was designed for hot water production, without grid connection.

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Only Turbines erected in Denmark are listed!

In 1994 the California Energy Commission reported 176 Windmatic Turbines Installed in California with a capacity of 13.6 MW ( average 78 kW)

Only Turbines erected in Denmark are listed here. (More than 1000 turbines were installed in California.)

The first turbine developed, was the 22 kW machine. The prototype Turbine was - after a test period at the production facility at Balle - sold to Erik Grove-Nielsen's Father at Hejnsvig in 1981. It still operates, now 27 years later.

Nordtank was owned by CEO Thorkild Rørbæk Jensen. Foreman at the production was Peder Mørup. Engineer in the first years: Erik Ørum Nielsen.

An 11 kW model using Økær/AeroStar 3.5 m blades was also delivered in early years. ( Turbines produced = 14). A 65 kW model was developed on basis of the 55 kW design. Later 75 kW (n=6), 99 kW (n=42), 100 kW (n=1), 130 kW (n=78) and 145 kW (n=1). Next model was the 150 kW turbine from 1989. (n=221).

For some models Dutch STORK blades were used from 1986 through 198X. Later LM Glasfiber blades were used.

The NORDTANK company earlier produced Road Tank Vehicles, which explains the name. On the old logo an automotive tank is seen. From their experience with rolled tankers skin, they derived the tubular wind turbine tower, which very soon became more common in Denmark than lattice towers. Danregn Vindkraft (Bonus) adopted this design, and later also Vestas began fabrication of tubular towers for their turbines. For more information on Nordtank see also Blade Story.

Nordtank in 1995 became "Nordtank Energy Group", (NEG). In 1997 NEG merged with Micon and became NEG-Micon. Later NEG-Micon merged with Vestas. ( Vestas Wind Systems).

Export models:

From summer 1981 the Blade Make was AeroStar.

After the bankrupcy of the AeroStar manufacturer DCER, in 1986, blades were supplied by LM Glasfiber.

Danregn (= Danish Rain) originally fabricated irrigation equipment for Danish farmers. Son of the founder: Peter Stubkjær Sørensen together with Egon Kristensen in 1980 got the chance to start up a new area of production. The first turbine was the 22 kW. Økær Vind Energi delivered the first 5 m blades for Danregn Vindkraft in December 1980 - for their prototype. see also Blade Story. First engineer employed was Ejler Kristensen.

Later the product was named BONUS. In 2004/2005 Bonus was acquired by SIEMENS. The new name is now Siemens Wind Power.

The company is the only Danish Wind Turbine Company, that never had a bankrupcy. When the Californian Wind market collapsed in 1986, most other companies failed.

Bonus Turbines developed in the next years:

* = Prototype.

Hereafter MegaWatt Turbines were designed.

Dana Vindkraft established 1977 by a.o. pioneers Claus Nybroe and Rio Ordell.

Claus Nybroe later established the company Windflower, designing and fabricating multiblade wind roses, using multipole PMG generators.

Claus Nybroe was co-author of an early very important textbook (handbook) on wind turbine construction (and solar as well). More information to follow.

Bladeconcept is equal to Riisager and early Windmatic.

Most turbines had bladetips in green color.

Turbine fabricated at Sonebjerg Maskinfabrik, Kolding.

Blades were fabricated in all wood.

Owner and founders of Kongsted Møllen, was Ole and Kenny Hansen of Kongsted, Sealand. Ole was an earlier customer to Chr. Riisager. (Riisager Turbine) Johansen felt that he could substantially enhance the turbine design, and so he did. In 1982 he halted the production.

* A second generator of 5.5 kW was operating at low windspeeds (at lower r.p.m.).

Turbine was developed by Ulrik Poulsen and manufactured by VPF Maskinfabrik. Blades in extruded aluminum.  A popular name for this Turbine was “the Stork”, giving the impression of a Stork picking up Frogs in the Meadows.

A second model was developed: Here the rotor was placed on a nacelle at a conventional upright tower; much alike the American Storm Master.

The GIROMILL was manufactured by Dansk Vindkraft Industri ApS ( Finn Wiinberg). (The rotor was designed by Danish Wind Veteran Flemming Rasmussen of RISØ. Flemming earlier worked with a Darrieus turbine at RISØ). The GIROMILL is not a Darrieus Turbine, and the Blade pitch is variable, and guided - during one revolution - by a Wind Vane through a central mechanical system.
Diameter of the Rotor is 9 meter. The length of each Aluminum Blade: 5.5 meter.
Generator 15 kW  - Rotor running at 50 r.p.m. Pitching of the blades is used as Air Brake.

Odder Møllen was fabricated by Scandinavian Wind Systems LTD, located in the Town of Odder, South of Århus, and headed by NN.

The Odder Turbine had a standard Asynchronous generator, but the company also carried out experiments with a multipole (58) generator from Transmotor. (A Copenhagen company delivering generators for ships - Engineer Aage Larsen at Transmotor was a great help to many new manufacturers of stand alone turbines for household hot water production)

Both turbine types were downwind designs. The M-15 was 2-bladed.

The prototype was erected in southern Denmark (1982). No further turbines were erected. The Turbine was partly designed by Danish Wind Veteran Helge Petersen. Special features: The Wind Rose Tail reduced the need for an active yaw system. (The tail was not Helges design!)The pitch hinges was designed and located so, as to use aerodynamic and centrifugal forces to enable an autonomic active safety system. Helge Petersen sadly passed away on January 7th 2010 at the age of 88.
 

The, somewhat special design did not attract many costumers. Only one Turbine of this design was manufactured.

The Turbine was a spinn-off from the 2 Danish 630 kW NIBE Turbines, erected by the Ministry of Commerce and the Electric Utilities in 1980. The production of bladeparts to the NIBE turbines gave VØLUND in Viborg a basic experience in bladeproduction techniques. VØLUND wanted to commercialise this knowledge.

VØLUND A/S had for many years been establishing Power Stations and major incineration plants world wide. The facility at Viborg was the earlier "Brødrene Christensens Beholdefabrik", which in the origin manufactured steel tanks for oil etc. As the facility also fabricateded storage tanks made of filament wound fibreglass, this company was chosen by the Ministry of Commerce, to fabricate the filament wound D-spars for the Nibe turbines. For further information on the Nibe turbines see European State turbines.

2 years later the company merged with other companies to Dansk Vind Teknik A/S.

Only Turbines erected in Denmark are listed.

The company was established at Skagen, and later moved to NørreSundby. In 1999 Wind World was sold to Nordtank Energy Group.

Key Persons in early years were the brothers: Karl Erik Olsen and Lars Olsen.

Nordex Turbines developed and sold in the next years:

Hereafter MegaWatt Turbines were designed

Key designer in early years: Knud Buhl-Nielsen, who earlier cooperated with the Folkecenter (Smedemester design) and later designed the Lolland Turbine.

Key personnel were the brothers: Carsten and Jens Pedersen of Thyregod, only a few kilometres from "BONUS Capital" Brande.

First blade make used was KJ Fiber.

Later the headquarters of Nordex was moved to Germany.

Key persons in Danwin were Engineers Per Lading and Thorkild Dahlgreen.

At least 233 Turbines were installed in the Californian Wind Rush of the eighties.

In 1994 the California Energy Commission reported 233 Danwin Turbines Installed in California with a capacity of 36.0 MW ( average 154 kW)

Dencon was produced at the island of Ærø, at the shipyard of Ærøskøbing. The design was made by the Folkecenter (see grassroot section of Windsofchange), including engineers Henrik Kirchheiner and Peter Rasmussen, besides Preben Maegaard.

Initially the design was named: AeroDan, then Dencon and later Dancon.

(Also see ScanMill brochure attached)

Key persons: Bent T. Gregersen,

At least 19 Turbines were produced.

Downwind turbine.

Blade for the prototype was delivered by Økær Vind Energi, but turbines in serial production had KJ Fiber blades.

Key person: Jørgen Hansen.

Household turbine for producing hot water.

The SMEDEMESTER koncept was developed at the Danish FOLKECENTER (Run by Preben Maegaard) by a.o. engineer Knud Buhl Nielsen and the talented blacksmith Bendy Poulsen. The first model was a 22 kW turbine. Blades were ØKÆR VIND ENERGI 5 meter. The prototype was tested and proven by RISØ. The Drawings and specifications were made available to local blacksmiths all over Denmark. After some time several minor companies were manufacturing the 22 kW turbine according to the drawings made available by the Folkecenter. None of these companies got a long track record. Only Næsby Smedie, fabricating the Loland turbine.

A 500 kW and six 100 kW Turbines at Hanstholm were also named Smedmester.

For USA exports, 60 Hz versions of the 3 turbine designs were made: 33 kW , 75 kW and 120 kW. A talented senior design engineer on the project was Knud Buhl Nielsen, who later became the key engineer at the design of the Nordex turbines in Denmark and later Germany.

The Lolland turbine was the most succesfull example of the "Smedemester", and the only one that was sold to California in the Wind Rush days.

The turbine was produced by Blacksmith Davidsen of Næsby Smedie, at Lolland in southern Denmark.

The KM Turbine was delivered either as grid connected, or with a synchronuos generator coupled to an immersed heating element for hot water supply. Founder and owner was Engineer Kjeld Reinholdt Møller.

In the following years Reinholdt Møller developed a successfull 2-bladed Turbine called SWINGER. Rotor diameter 13 meter.

This Turbine later became the GAIA Turbine.

60 Hz versions of 22 kW and 65 kW for the US market was also marketed.

Prototypes for a 95 kW, a 150 kW and a 275 kW Turbine were fabricated in 1988-89.

2 Generators 75 kW / 18.5 kW

Key person: Helge Petersen ( Not the Helge Petersen known from the Tvind turbine design and the early RISØ Test Station)

In 1990 a 300 kW prototype was erected but never came in production.

DWP or Danish Wind Power.

Key persons: Hans Ullersted and Aage Højbak.

A 200 kW prototype was also fabricated.

Key person: Flemming Østergaard

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When Kuriant stopped production in 1984 - The Kuriant design was marketed and manufactured by owner of Hjerm Elektro: Svend Erik Thusgaard - in the name "Bosted Møllen".