The tallest wind turbine in the world is located in Schipkau in Lusatia. The first park with several record-breaking facilities is already being planned. The technology is still in its early stages.
The high-altitude wind turbine in Schipkau reaches a height of 365 meters and can deliver twice the yield of a normal onshore turbine with the same rotor diameter.
The system consists of an inner and an outer tower, with the inner steel frame being lifted onto the outer frame using a hydraulic lifting system.
Gicon plans to build five more high-altitude wind towers starting in 2030. There are declarations of intent for 100 additional systems across Germany.
The Federal Agency for Advanced Innovations is funding the project with 25 million euros and sees potential for an estimated 4,000 high-altitude wind towers in existing wind farms.
Dusseldorf. Hidden between Dresden and Berlin lies the tranquil community of Schipkau in Lusatia. The world's tallest wind turbine has recently been installed here, in a former lignite mining area of all places. The 365 meter high colossus even towers over the Paris Eiffel Tower (330 meters). The surrounding wind turbines almost look cute. Although they themselves rise 150 to 200 meters high.
The high-altitude wind tower is scheduled to be connected to the power grid these days. For weeks, visitors from home and abroad have been drawn to eastern Germany to marvel at the record-breaking facility. The expectations are high.
“Our high-altitude wind tower can deliver twice the yield of a normal onshore turbine, with the same rotor diameter,” says Jochen Großmann. The engineer is the founder and managing director of Gicon, the company behind the high-altitude wind turbine in Schipkau. His team has been researching the idea for more than 15 years.
Now Gicon has actually succeeded. With more than 2,000 tons of steel installed and 22,000 individual parts: “This is an engineering masterpiece,” says Großmann, visibly proud. If the forecasts come true, high-altitude wind power could give the energy transition an enormous boost.
Compared to conventional wind turbines, high-altitude wind power offers a number of advantages: At high altitudes, the systems collect significantly more and more predictable wind power. For years, scientists and companies around the world have been trying to harness greater heights to generate energy. For example, through electricity-producing wind kites or mobile wind turbines. So far, however, there has been no major breakthrough.
But where a wind kyte takes up a large area in the air and can only offer a relatively small yield in current pilot projects, high-altitude wind power even promises twice the yield of conventional systems on land and still has all four ends on the ground. According to the Federal Agency for Advanced Innovations (Sprind), the potential is great.
"In the future, the high-altitude wind turbines can be built as a so-called second floor in existing wind farms. In this way, the yield can be increased on existing areas," says the Federal Agency. In Germany alone, an estimated 4,000 high-altitude wind towers could be realized in existing wind farms. Sprind supported the project in Schipkau with 25 million euros.
In order to get the wind turbine to a height of 365 meters, the Dresden-based company Gicon developed its own telescope system. The complex actually consists of two towers: an inner and an outer one. The turbine sits on the inner tower. After the outer scaffolding was completed, the inner steel structure was lifted onto the outer scaffolding using a hydraulic lifting system. There are no construction cranes for the corresponding heights. That's why the high-altitude wind tower is its own crane.
With a nominal output of 3.8 megawatts, the high-altitude wind tower will be able to produce electricity for up to 7,500 households. Gicon promises that future systems will also be equipped with the latest generation of turbines and an output of seven megawatts.
“This technology should be used on a large scale in the next few years and thus make a substantial contribution to German energy security,” said Sprind innovation manager Martin Chaumet when presenting the project.
Costs four times as high as a “normal” wind turbine
In fact, Gicon is already planning the next five high-altitude wind towers - series production should start by 2030 at the latest. “We already have declarations of intent to build 100 more high-altitude wind turbines across Germany,” Großmann told Handelsblatt.
The utility Enercity, which is responsible for the technical and commercial management of the high-altitude wind tower in Schipkau, also sees great potential in the technology. But: “Now it depends on how high the additional yield will be and to what extent the costs can be reduced - because in the end a project always has to be economical,” says Thomas Oetjen, deputy head of operations at Enercity Renewables, to the Handelsblatt.
The energy industry is watching the project closely. Ultimately, Gicon promises electricity yields comparable to the yield from wind power on the high seas. “Offshore on land, so to speak,” says Großmann. However, the costs are as high as the expected return. They are roughly four times what a “normal” wind turbine would cost in 2025.
“If you take into account the additional yield mentioned at a height of 300 meters at this location, the costs per kilowatt would have to fall by around 60 percent in order to achieve comparable electricity production costs to today's turbines,” says Christoph Winkler, “Global Energy Pathways” team leader at the Research Center Jülich.
Through series production, Gicon expects a radical reduction in construction costs from 2030. The volume discount for the steel required for the tower is particularly large: “In the future, we want the electricity production costs to be even lower than today’s onshore prices,” says Großmann. The electricity production costs, also known as the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), describe the total costs over the lifespan of a system in relation to the amount of electricity generated.
According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), the LCOE for onshore wind energy is currently 4.3 to 9.2 cents per kilowatt hour. For wind power at sea, the electricity production costs are 5.5 to 10.3 cents per kilowatt hour.
Record high equals acceptance problem?
However, expert Winkler sees another obstacle: “It would be necessary to analyze how the high-altitude wind turbines, which are visible much further away with their almost double height and the special tower construction, affect acceptance by the population, especially in regions that are perceived as beautiful.”
The acceptance of wind power can always become a problem. Even if support for the expansion of wind power is relatively high at around 70 percent among the population. This is the result of a representative survey carried out last year by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of the Wind and Solar Agency. However, the survey is aimed at conventional investments.
There are already regular disputes in court about compliance with legal distance rules. “A high-altitude wind turbine that is almost twice as large must also maintain minimum distances that are twice as large, which greatly reduces the potential areas; but it also means that no one will have to expect such a high-altitude wind turbine in the immediate vicinity of their home in the future,” says Winkler.
That's exactly why Gicon boss Großmann wants to first exploit the potential in existing wind farms. Also because the approval period is significantly shortened. This saves several years of approval time. The use of locally active regional medium-sized companies also helps to promote local acceptance, says Großmann.
Gicon did the same in Schipkau. For the construction of the high-altitude wind tower, 65 percent of the contracts were awarded to companies within a radius of up to 30 kilometers. Großmann promises that they want to keep it that way in future projects.
