Windkraftanlage Lichtenegg

The wind power plant at Lichtenegg stands on the Pesendorfer Höhe, an 800-metre ridge in the Bucklige Welt hills near the village of Pesendorf. It is a tall Enercon E-66 turbine with a 65-metre tower and 70-metre blades, built in 2003 by the Bucklige Welt Energie company. The electricity it produces feeds into the regional grid run by EVN. What makes the site unusual is the glass viewing cabin fixed sixty metres up, just below the nacelle. Fewer than a dozen such cabins exist worldwide, and only two are in Austria. Visitors climb 300 steps inside the tower to reach the cabin, from where the Bucklige Welt hills roll south to the Wechsel massif and west to the Schneeberg peak. On clear days the view stretches north to Wiener Neustadt and east as far as Lake Neusiedl. Beside the turbine is an energy adventure park with small windmills, solar panels and a storage unit. The cabin opens on summer weekends and by special tour, though small children are not admitted for safety. The site has also hosted unusual events: a stair-climb race, an athlete running a full marathon inside the swaying cabin, and a high-wire artist performing a one-armed handstand on a turbine blade.