1997, wind turbines with the characteristics of gearless, variable speed and variable pitch appeared in the wind turbine market. These advanced models with high capacity and low operation and maintenance costs include E-33, E-48 and E-70. , with capacities ranging from 330 kW to 2 MW, is manufactured by ENERCONGmbH, Germany, and its development started at 1992. In 2000, Swedish ABB Company successfully developed a 3 MW giant variable-speed wind turbine, including a high-voltage wind turbine with permanent magnet rotor structure, with a capacity of 3 MW, a height of about 70 meters and an impeller diameter of about 90 meters. In 2003, MWT-S2000 wind turbine, which started operation in Okinawa Electric Power Company, was the first 2 MW wind turbine made entirely by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan. It uses a small variable speed gearless permanent magnet synchronous motor and a new type of lightweight blades.
At present, many domestic enterprises have begun to enter the field of direct-drive wind turbines. Hunan Xiangdian Wind Energy Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Xiangtan Electric Group and Japan Yuanhong Co., Ltd., has successfully tested a 2 MW direct-drive permanent magnet wind turbine. The 2.5 MW direct-drive variable-pitch wind power jointly launched by Guangxi Yinhe Avandis Wind Power Co., Ltd. and Germany AVAVTIS Company will also complete the prototype in the second quarter of 2008; Xinjiang Jinfeng Technology Co., Ltd. and Harbin Kyushu Electric Company, which have independent intellectual property rights, have also developed 1.5 MW direct-drive wind turbines respectively.