Wind turbine manufacturer Enercon is developing new Hybrid Steel Towers (HST) for its current EP5 turbine models to better meet the growing customer demand for higher hub heights.
Starting in 2026, the new tower variants will be available worldwide, enabling high hub heights for EP5 turbines in international markets as well.
Until now, Enercon customers planning EP5 turbines with high hub heights have only had access to hybrid towers made of a combination of concrete and steel segments. “In order to be able to deliver for our customers in the coming years and to prevent the onshore expansion, which has finally gained momentum, from stalling again due to limited capacities, we are expanding the tower portfolio for the EP5 with an additional technology. This step puts tower production on a broader footing and reliably secures our volume for the coming years”, says Maria-Josefa Brand, Tower Product Manager at Enercon, about the expanded offering.
The HST tower is a hybrid steel tower technology developed by Enercon. It combines segments of the Modular Steel Tower (MST), consisting of bolted, bent steel plates for the tower base, with segments of a tubular steel tower (ST), which are placed on the lower MST segments. The advantages of HST towers include easy transport and the ability to localize production, for example, in countries with local content requirements. “With the new HST towers, we will also be able to offer EP5 customers in international markets tower variants with high hub heights in the future“, emphasizes Timo Müller, EP5 Platform Manager at Enercon.
In Germany, Enercon offers the “HST 162m” for the E-175 EP5 E1/E2, “HST 175m” for the E-175 EP5 E2, and “HST 166m” for the E-160 EP5 E3. In the long term, HST towers made from CO?-reduced steel could also offer ecological and economic benefits.
