Rębielice Królewskie Wind Turbine

Józef Antos has been into wind energy since he read about it in a magazine in 1978. Having experience with construction, he made and tested many small-scale wind turbines over the years, eventually settling on a design that is radically different from common types of windmills.

The turbine was mostly built on site by Antos and two friends, and assembled by the same team in 2003. The turbine has a rotor of 300 blades and is 33 meters in diameter.  It sits on a rotating control room and steel tower that is 54 meters tall. Antos claimed that it could generate up to two megawatts of electricity, which is comparable with modern wind turbines, and would have been better than turbines at the time. However, the turbine never generated electricity because he was never able to obtain a suitable generator to attach to it. 

Nevertheless, several investors were interested and discussed buying his design, even though a deal was never made. However, it does bear a certain resemblance to the Australian 2010 Eco Whisper turbine, which might have been inspired by Antos’s design.

Antos passed away in 2009, and with that his project as no one took the helm to continue the work since then. The turbine still stands and is slowly rusting away, and falling apart. It is unlikely that it will ever work again, but locals are proud of the structure and maintain the site.