During the late 1970s Germany’s ministry for technological development BMFT (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) called Ulrich Hütter out of retirement to design a new wind program. He concluded that his 1960s approach still represented the state-of-the-art, and that with the technology gained since his StGW-34 turbine had been dismantled the design could be scaled-up to multi-megawatt size. Thus Growian (Grosse Wind Energie Anlage or large wind turbine) was born.[1]
Hütter remained cautious and as with his early experimental turbine, recommended loading the rotor lightly. He suggested that a rotor 80 meters (260 feet) in diameter be used to drive only a 1 MW generator. But the contractor, MAN, had a grander vision; they wanted to claim the title of “world’s largest wind turbine” in a race with the United States.
Development began in 1976 and MAN broke ground on the project in the spring of 1981.
In the fall of 1983, MAN commissioned the 3 MW wind turbine with a downwind rotor 100 meters (328 feet) in diameter.[2] They realized their mistake even before installation was complete. The proposed height of the tower exceeded existing crane capacity, forcing the company to seek approval for a shorter tower. MAN did succeed in building the world’s largest wind turbine–its nacelle alone weighed as much as a jumbo jet–but they also led German engineering to its most spectacular aeronautical failure. In the end Growian cost nearly twice that estimated and was dismantled from 1987 to 1988.[3]
The turbine was designed with a specific power of 380 W/m² or a specific area of 2.6 m²/kW (equivalent to a Class I wind turbine today) and was intended to generate 12 million kWh per year.[4] It produced only 420 kWh before being dismantled.
There was evidence that some of the participants in the project wanted it to fail. Here’s what Craig Morris has written about the project.
“At Kaiser Wilhelm Koog, a rural community at the mouth of the Elbe River just west of Hamburg, Germany’s best minds had attempted to build a two-blade 3 MW turbine from scratch in 1983. It failed, and not just because the engineers had scaled up too quickly (no working turbine anywhere close to that size had ever been built). Rather, the utility firms involved wanted the project to fail, so they sabotaged it. “We need [that turbine] to prove that wind power won’t work,” an executive at RWE stated at a board meeting in 1982 (the minutes were later leaked). With R&D funding, firms got their money anyway.”[5]
To save face after the highly public failure, the project was labeled a “success” by all those involved.
MAN tried to rescue its reputation with three smaller turbines, the WKA 60 for the island of Helgoland off the northwest German coast, dubbed Growian II, and the AWEC 60 for Cabo Villano in Spain.
In 1990, the 1.2 MW, 60-meter diameter WKA 60 was installed in Helgoland’s harbor. A sister Growian II machine was installed at Windtest Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog on the mainland in 1992, the same year that the AWEC 60 was installed in Spain.[6]
The Helgoland unit was struck by lightning at least twice and removed in the early to mid 1990s. The second unit at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog was later removed from the tower and placed on the ground as part of wind energy exhibit sometime between 1997 and 1998. For many years the nacelle was open to the public and Silvio Matysik photographed the turbine and drive train for his web site, wind-turbine-models.com.[7] Access is now closed as is the nearby visitor’s center.
Unlike Growian I, the Growian II machines used a three-blade upwind rotor that more closely resembled Danish machines of the time than any of the Hütter-derived designs. Proponents of the turbines argued later that these machines were never intended to compete commercially. They were only demonstrations. What they were demonstrating remains unclear.
The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog or polder in Schleswig-Holstein’s Dithmarshen kreis where both Growian I and II were installed also hosted Germany’s first wind farm in 1987. Windenergiepark Westküste included 30 wind turbines with a total capacity of one megawatt, including five Enercon E16s, and five 25 kW elektrOmat turbines. Today there’s a commercial wind farm of multi-megawatt Enercon machines on the site that have been in operation for the past two decades.
In contrast to MAN’s experience, Danish students and their faculty with technical assistance from Risø installed the 54-meter diameter wind turbine at Tvind on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in 1978. That turbine is still in use today. See Tvindkraft: The Giant That Shook the World Turns 42, and Confirmed: Tvindkraft Designed to be Slightly Larger than Smith-Putnam.
- Rare Footage of Growian I and II Wind Turbines Posted
- German Museum Acquires Giant Growian Blade Tip
- Growian wind turbine blade, Technik Museum Sinsheim
- Oktober 1983 – Windkraftanlage Growian geht in Betrieb
- Der Sprengung des Windkraftwerkturmes der Großen Windenergie Anlage Growian 2
- Growian-Strom aus Wind, Stern 1982
- Large Wind Energy Converter: Growian 3 MW
- Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog 2025 Update
- Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog Photos
- ‘Growian’: Erste Schritte der Windkraft im Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog – hier anschauen, 4 minute video by ARD’s Schleswig-Holstein Magazin, a retrospective with rare footage of Growian I in operation. Aired 30 September 2025.
- Große Windenergieanlage GROWIAN, Antwort der Bundesregierung to Kleine Anfrage die Faktion CDU/CSU, 1 May 1982.
[1] Adapted from Gipe, Paul. Wind Energy for the Rest of Us: A Comprehensive Guide to Wind Power and How to Use It. Wind-works.org, 2016. Pages 57-58.
[2] I remember visiting the site in the early to mid 1980s from the vantage point of a trailer used as a visitor’s center. The turbine was not operating when I was there, though there were some fresh vegetables for sale on the honor system.
[3] Heymann, Matthias. Die Geschichte der Windenergienutzung, 1890-1990. Campus, 1995. Pages 369-382.
[4] Koerber, F., and H. A. Thiele. “Large Wind Energy Converter: Growian 3 MW.” December 1, 1979, 121–31. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19800008201.
[5] Morris, Craig. “The Modern Wind Sector – and the Energiewende – Turns 30 Today.” EnergyTransition.Org, August 24, 2017. https://energytransition.org/2017/08/the-modern-wind-sector-and-the-energiewende-turns-30-today/.
[6] Heymann, pages 426-427.
[7] Matysik, Silvio. “MAN Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg WKA-60 / GROWIAN II Wind Turbine / Rotor Lock.” Wind-Turbine-Models.Com, Windtest Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog, Germany, July 15, 2017. https://en.wind-turbine-models.com/fotos/Vo9tWxYFj9l-man-maschinenfabrik-augsburg-nuernberg-wka-60-growian-ii-wind-turbine-rotor-lock.
