Outside a small Bavarian village, a single wind turbine now scrapes the sky at 285 meters — the tallest onshore wind turbine ever installed, and a new marker for how far the industry can push turbine height.

  • 285 meters — total height from ground to blade tip
  • 199 meters — hub height, a new world record for a series-produced onshore turbine
  • 7.2 megawatts — the turbine's generating capacity
  • 108 meters — height of the concrete section of its hybrid tower

Danish manufacturer Vestas confirmed it has installed one of its EnVentus V172-7.2 MW turbines atop a hybrid concrete-and-steel tower built by German construction firm Max Bögl, near the village of Winnberg outside Sengenthal in Bavaria. At 199 meters, the hub is the tallest ever built for an onshore machine; including the blades, the structure reaches 285 meters from the ground.

Why height matters for wind power

Wind speed generally increases with altitude, and it grows steadier the higher a turbine climbs above trees, hills, and turbulence near the ground. For sites with only modest wind resources, a taller tower can be the difference between a marginal project and a highly productive one.

That logic is becoming more important as easy locations run out. "As permitting constraints, land availability and grid access increasingly shape project development, maximising site performance by partnering across the value chain is more important than ever," Vestas said in announcing the milestone.

"This milestone demonstrates how innovation can increase energy production by accessing stronger and more consistent wind resources through modular design, helping to capture more energy and create greater value for customers." — Vestas

How the hybrid tower was built

Max Bögl's hybrid design pairs a tall precast-concrete base — nearly 108 meters on its own — with a steel section above it, a technique the company has refined since building its first hybrid turbine in 2010. The approach lets developers reach heights that a single steel tower can't support economically.

Wind turbine height records are notoriously tricky to compare, since some are set by one-off prototypes and others by turbines already in commercial production. China's Dongfang Electric began series production of a 26 MW offshore turbine with a 185-meter hub in 2024, with blades stretching its tip height to roughly 340 meters. China Three Gorges separately installed a floating offshore turbine reaching 270 meters from sea level to blade tip.

The new Winnberg turbine beats both for hub height, though not for total tip height, and it holds a cleaner distinction: it appears to be the tallest onshore turbine of any kind, prototype or otherwise, now in operation. A rival hybrid-tower project already under construction at Schipkau in Brandenburg is expected to challenge that record within the next few years.

For now, the turbine outside Winnberg stands as a working bet that going taller — not just building bigger blades — is one of the more overlooked ways to squeeze more power out of onshore wind. Germany already leads Europe in installed wind capacity, and projects like this one suggest the next gains may come less from wider rotors and more from simply building upward, into wind resources that shorter towers can't reach.

The timing also matters. Grid connections and buildable land near population centers are increasingly scarce across Western Europe, pushing developers toward sites that were once considered marginal. A taller tower can turn one of those marginal sites into a competitive one without needing a larger footprint on the ground — an appealing trade-off in a country where new wind permits can take years to clear.

Read more from RenewEconomy and see the turbine's specifications on Vestas' V172-7.2 MW product page.