The launch took place at the European Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition (EWEC) in Warsaw, Poland on 20 April.

The direct drive wind turbine has a permanent magnet generator.

"With half the parts of a conventional geared wind turbine, and much less than half the number of moving parts, the new wind turbine will require less maintenance and increase profitability for customers," says Siemens Energy.

The wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 101 m is available for sale for onshore and offshore projects.

"Our new SWT-3.0-101 will offer 25% more power than our present 2.3 MW-machine, but with a lower weight and only half the parts", says Henrik Stiesdal, CTO of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit.

"Our main target for the new machine was to reduce complexity in order to increase reliability and profitability. We are confident that our new direct drive wind turbine is a reliable investment in the future of power generation."

The wind turbine

With a length of 6.8 m and a diameter of 4.2 m, the nacelle can be transported using standard vehicles commonly available in most major markets.

"The nacelle of SWT-3.0-101 weighs only 73 tons, which is less than the nacelle of our standard 2.3 MW wind turbine", adds Henrik Stiesdal. "But despite the compact design, we have actually given our service technicians more space to operate - simply because we radically reduced the number of parts".

Commercial serial production is expected to start in 2011.