World's largest wind turbine towers above the London Eye

18 November 2002

A prototype E-112 is already in action in Germany and Ecotricity is planning to build one, having first introduced Enercon's state of the art wind technology to Britain in 1996.

Ecotricity is the world's first green electricity company and its founder, Managing Director Dale Vince, is excited about this latest innovation, "This is a very powerful machine with an output of 4.5 megawatts - three times bigger than our turbine at the Ecotech Centre in Swaffham, Norfolk. There are huge energy and environmental advantages of bringing the E-112 to the UK. The likelihood is that this machine will be used predominantly off-shore but the benefits of also building them on-shore are obvious.

The electricity output from just one of these machines would provide green electricity for 5,000 homes making renewable energy targets much more achievable. Above all this machine produces clean electricity - it does not pollute the environment and is a local fuel source which will never run out. In addition, just one these wind turbines would prevent the emission of over 12,900 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year."

The E-112 has three rotor blades each measuring over 171 feet in length which is longer than the length of a Jumbo Jet wing. The egg shaped nacelle (or hub) is as tall as a house and holds the 500 tonne generator which is equivalent to the weight of 500 small cars!