ENERCON installs first EP3 wind energy converter with innovative E-nacelle

Following on from the EP5 platform, ENERCON is now also introducing the E-nacelle to the EP3 platform. The first EP3 WEC type to receive the innovative machine house with built-in electrical systems is the E-138 EP3 E3, which has a rotor diameter of 138 m and a nominal power of 4.26 MW. ENERCON is currently constructing three wind energy converters of this kind in the Staphorst wind farm in the Netherlands. The machine house for the first WEC has now been hoisted and installed. 

The electrical systems for the EP5 and EP3 E-nacelle are fully integrated in the machine house. A separate E-module in the tower base is dispensed with, resulting in substantial benefits in terms of costs and time expenditure for production, transport and logistics, and during installation and commissioning. The component is completed and tested at the factory, and is transported to the installation site plug-and-play ready. 

On top of this, the approximately 72-tonne EP3 E-nacelle contains latest-generation power electronics: new ENERCON full-scale converters with higher performance that have been specially designed for use cases of onshore wind with a high share of partial load operation hours convert the energy produced. In addition, they meet the highest requirements for connecting to electrical energy networks worldwide. This innovative piece of electrical engineering will also be used for the new E-175 EP5 WEC type in future, which ENERCON presented for the first time at the Hamburg WindEnergy trade fair. 

‘The EP3 E-nacelle is thus an important milestone in our technology roadmap towards a sustained reduction of the cost of energy’, says ENERCON CTO Jörg Scholle. ‘Step by step we are bringing new technologies and improvements for our two most important product platforms onto the market – always with the aim of offering our customers strong, reliable products perfectly tailored to meet their requirements.’