Here's How It Starts
Portsmouth wind turbine shut down; needs $460,000 in repairs
By Alex Kuffner July 16, 2012 Providence Journal
The wind turbine at Portsmouth High School.
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. -- In March 2009, officials heralded the installation of a 336-foot-tall wind turbine at the high school. It was the largest in Rhode Island, and they believed it would generate dollars as well as watts, selling power into the electric grid.
For three years, the $3-million windmill fulfilled that promise, making the town about $400,000 after maintenance and debt payments.
But in February, technical problems started shutting down the turbine for weeks at a time. In June, it stopped again, and it hasn't started since.
Last week, the Town Council learned that the turbine's gearbox had failed and needed to be replaced for at least $460,000 -- completely erasing those three years of income.
The situation has left council members angry and exasperated.
Labels: Energy
posted by RussWilcox @ 11:12 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
It serves them right. Those darn fools got taken in by that green energy crap and now they're sorry they ever got involved in it.
Whenever I'm out sailing the bay in my boat I curse those darn things when I see them and call them stupid windmills. I wounder if they knew that the gears in those useless rigs require oil for lubrication? Oh, but we're supposed to be getting off oil aren't we. Maybe we can go back to hunting whales again. This is what happens when you get Democrats controlling Congress and the White House. They'll never learn.
The high maintenance and failure of the gear box accompanies almost every wind mill in the the world making wind energy one of the most expensive and unreliable sources of energy. The University was a bit instrumental in getting a wind mill installed on Block Island to surplant their diesel generators. I and a friend of mine was at its inauguration. The residents beccame so irritated and annoyed that it was removed in less than two years. The whole green energy movement is nothing but pie-in-the sky by amitious bunch of laymen playing to be engineers.
I strongly disagree with both the comments and the sentiment of the piece. Moving forward will not be easy, low cost or pain-free, but move forward we shall despite the nay-sayers....not all efforts will be successful, but some will.
Steve
I believe that windmills will NEVER be a realistic and competitive source of electric power except in remote locations when their full cost is calculated.
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