This week: Interview with Thorsten Spehr, Managing Director of TEMBRA

Windfair: Please tell us something about your company and your portfolio.

Thorsten Spehr: For the last 5 years, Tembra has been developing modern wind turbines in Berlin and Hamburg in all performance classes in response to direct customer orders. With us, customers have the option of acquiring complete, custom-made wind turbine designs, with all rights to production and marketing.

Our partners Klaus Würthele, Thorsten Spehr, Jürgen Wagner and Michael Cotta have several decades of extensive experience in the wind industry, and perfectly complement the fresh ideas of our highly qualified young engineers.

Lean company structures guarantee high levels of individuality and flexibility for the long term. We maintain a partnership approach with our clients and reliable vendors, working closely together throughout the entire process from the initial idea to the prototype of the wind turbine.

Windfair: How many employees does your company have?

Thorsten Spehr: 16 employees currently work at our headquarters in Berlin. At our second location in Hamburg there are four more employees.

Windfair: Do you have any new or upcoming Wind Energy Products or Services?

Thorsten Spehr: Our development of a 3MW direct-drive system for a German customer is nearly finished, i.e. the prototype will be installed in the summer. For a Chinese customer, we are working on a direct-drive 6MW offshore system for which the prototype will be installed next year.

We are also working in our research and development department on an innovative concept for the regulation of wind turbines with the help of a flexible blade trailing edge flap. We have already presented this project, funded by the BMU, at the Husum Wind 2012, the DEWEK and other events. As a next step, we would like to evaluate the research results obtained through simulations and experiments in a wind tunnel on a small test turbine in the field. For this, we are currently looking for partners.

Windfair: Do you have any special training programs for your employees?

Thorsten Spehr: We always have students and interns working in our team who are directly involved in the projects.

Windfair: Tell us about your future developments. What can we expect in the next year or two?

Thorsten Spehr: We believe that there is still great potential for completely new development of wind turbines, as more and more countries want to get into wind power generation. In these countries, local production is often desired. Through our years of experience, we can help them to develop their own turbine and set up the production.

Thanks for the interview!