Tvind - Tvindkraft World's Biggest Windmill

Tvindkraft World's Biggest Windmill

Teachers at the schools in Tvind decided in late 1974 to build the great wind turbine Tvindkraft to produce the energy needed by the schools in Tvind. (Tvindkraft = Tvind Power in English), as the same time as the Swedish Nuclear Power Plant Barsebäck was about to commence production of electricity. Tvindkraft started to produce electricity in 1978 and was the world's biggest wind turbine with a 53 m concrete tower and 3 wing blades of 27 m length each for a number of years. Tvindkraft continues to produce electricity as planned, while Barsebäck has been closed down. The world has since seen an explosion in the number of really big wind turbines in many countries. The Windmill Team was the group of people who build the windmill. It consisted of some teachers from the schools at Tvind together with different people from all over the country and from abroad, who had come to build the windmill . They all worked under the same conditions. They did not receive a salary, but board and lodging and pocket money. Some of the students joined in from time to time. The building of Tvindkraft served from the outset several purposes:

• to produce the energy needed for the schools in Tvind,
• to be a very solid argument in the popular debate at the time for and against introduction of nuclear power,
• to show the strength and the power of people who have come together to work together to build Tvindkraft – the power of self-reliance,
• to show that the power from the wind in the long perspective will be rather cheap, because the wind cannot be monopolized.

Tvindkraft has since supplied the energy needed for the schools in Tvind. The building of Tvindkraft inspired and gave rise to a growing wind mill industry in Denmark. The then HQ of Vestas Wind Systems was located only 25 km away. Tvindkraft receives a lot of attention and a lot of guests from Denmark and from abroad for being the first among the really big wind turbine, especially during the building and in the first years of operation. In December 2008, Tvindkraft as part of the schools in Tvind was awarded a European Prize, the Solar Prize, as a recognition of the pioneering effort of the decision to build, as well as actually building, the windmill in the 1970s. Tvindkraft received the award in the category Education. The German organisation Eurosolar awarded the prize and the following is quoted from Eurosolars motivation for the award: "During the years of the oil crisis in the 1970s ... the Danish schools in Tvind set out to build a 2 MW wind turbine in the year 1975. Students and volunteers from numerous countries came to Tvind in order to help the teachers and the students mount the 'Tvindkraft' (wind power) turbine. ... Only because of the innovative and the courageous work at the schools in Tvind was it possible to realize the 'Tvindkraft' turbine. Congratulations to the schools in Tvind. Winner of the European Solar Prize 2008."