In 1991, Frank Olsen was head of department at Elkraft (now \u00d8rsted) and he was tasked with constructing Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm. He remembers how the industry was keenly focused on the project, which intensified the pressure:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u2013 Many of the turbines at the time had a number of operational weaknesses, and many had inferior gearboxes. If a turbine broke down on land, it could be fixed overnight, but it would take months before you could get out to Vindeby.\n<\/p>\n
My biggest fear was having wind turbines out there breaking down one by one, and we couldn\u2019t get out to them.\n<\/p>\n
And then everyone could say: \u2018Told you so! Wind turbines don\u2019t work!\u2019.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Frank and his colleagues working on Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm were eager to make it a high-quality project, technically speaking. It was a test of the technology\u2019s viability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such a test was widely supported, too, among both the proponents and sceptics in the industry, says Frank:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Wind power was driven by two primary forces: those who wanted to show that it was worthless and those who wanted to prove that it worked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were drawbacks. For instance, an offshore turbine is exposed to salt water and mists and has a higher risk of getting struck by lightning compared with onshore turbines. But Frank and his colleagues found solutions to these challenges, and Vindeby didn\u2019t flop.\u00a0<\/p>\n