Enercon

Enercon GmbH

Type	GmbH
Industry	Wind power industry
Founded	1984 (1984)
Founder	Aloys Wobben
Headquarters	Aurich, Germany
Key people	Hans-Dieter Kettwig (Managing Director)
Products	Wind turbines
Number of employees	~18,000
Website	www.enercon.de

Enercon GmbH, based in Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany, is the fourth-largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world and has been the market leader in Germany since the mid-nineties. Enercon has production facilities in Germany (Aurich, Emden and Magdeburg), Sweden, Brazil, India, Canada, Turkey and Portugal. In June 2010, Enercon announced that they would be setting up Irish headquarters in Tralee.

As of July 2011, Enercon had installed more than 22,000 wind turbines, with a power generating capacity exceeding 32.9 GW. The most-often installed model is the E-40, which pioneered the gearbox-less design in 1993. As of July 2011, Enercon has a market share of 7.2% world-wide (fifth-highest) and 59.2% in Germany.

Currently Enercon supplies wind turbines to the British electricity company Ecotricity, including one billed as the UK's most visible turbine, an E-70 at Green Park Business Park.

One of Enercon's key innovations is the use of a gearless, direct drive mechanism, used in combination with an annular generator. This is in contrast to most wind turbines, which use a potentially less reliable gearbox in order to increase the rotation speed of the generator. Other differences in Enercon's wind turbines are their distinctive drop-shaped generator housings (designed by Lord Norman Foster) and their towers, which are painted with green rings at the base to blend with their surroundings.

In 2002, the first Enercon E-112 prototype was installed in Egeln, Germany, with a power rating of 4.5 MW. From July 2002 to October 2004, it was the biggest wind turbine in the world, until it was surpassed by the REpower 5M. At the end of 2005, the E-112 was upgraded to achieve a 6 MW power rating.