The purpose of this Annex was to further the development of large wind turbine systems (LWTS) by means of cooperative action and exchange of information on the planning and execution of national LWTS research, development, and demonstration programs.
For the purposes of the Annex, a LWTS was a single wind machine of one megawatt rating, or a wind power plant whose rated output power exceeded one megawatt, provided that the wind machines forming the wind power plant exceeded 25 meters in diameter. Large wind machines were usually prototypes, while machines constituting wind power plants were usually commercially available.
The major task under the Annex was the assembly and maintenance of a data base of material relevant to large wind energy systems. This included, among other things, detailed technical specifications of each machine type, wind power plant locations and characteristics, and national and local energy production records.
A variety of important results and conclusions were reached by the Task participants. Briefly summarized, they were:
- Dramatic growth in deployment
- Expanding R,D&D
- Growth in turbine size
- Robust international trade