Day one of the show saw MHI Vestas offshore wind platform, pushing nameplate capacity to 10MW — up from a previously available 9.5MW, which it launched in June 2017.
It becomes the first commercially available double-digit megawatt wind turbine and will be ready for commercial installation by 2021, the company said, shortly before GE Renewable Energy's 12MW Haliade turbine, announced in February, is expected to be available.
MHI Vestas CEO Philippe Kavafyan said: "What was unreachable before has become the new benchmark."
Where is Germany?
Miguel Arias Cañete, commissioner for energy at the European Commission, came to Hamburg.
He was joined by Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency; Lars Christian Lilleholt, Danish energy minister; Kjell-Børge Freiberg, Norway's minister of petroleum and energy; and Michael Losch, director general for energy in Austria's sustainable development and tousrism ministry.
And for Germany?
Neither chancellor Angela Merkel, nor economy minister Peter Altemeier, nor environment minister Svenja Schulze, and not even Andreas Scheuer, minister for transport and digital infrastructure, could find the time, it seems, to show up, or even write or send a message of greeting.
Their substitute was the, undoubtedly competent, Torsten Herdan head of the energy policy department for heat and efficiency at the economy and energy ministry.
In contrast, at the 2016 Hamburg event, economy and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel was the patron and opened the event.
What does this year‘s lack of heavyweight German political turnout at the world‘s largest wind event say in favour of the German government‘s climate ambitions?
Not a lot.
Unless of course it‘s all hands on deck at the ministries to deal with the automobile diesel scandal or right-wing tendencies at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, both issues that hit the headlines in recent weeks.
"It is an extraordinarily negative signal", said the energy ministers of five northern German federal states Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in a joint statement, demanding that the federal government fulfil its pledges on new auctions for onshore wind, and expansion of the offshore sector.
“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç TV
“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç TV spoke to Nordex's Till Junge about the OEMs new N149 platform and the prototype in Gemrnay.
"We have introduced a flexible rating from 4MW to 4.5MW, a variety of power modes plus a flexible lifetime. This enables the turbine to adapt perfectly to every site," Junge said.
Keep an eye out for more videos throughout the day.
In case you missed it
By adding more than 20GW of capacity a year between 2030 and 2050, the wind power industry could help renewables account for 66% of Europe’s final energy demand and significantly contribute to a 90% reduction of CO2 emissions.
Wind could account for 36% of Europe's power generation by 2050 as the continent meets its commitments under the Paris agreement, according to a new WindEurope report, launched yesterday.
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