May 19, 2014
Massachusetts

Electrical issues have Scituate wind turbine out of commission

Sue Scheible | The Patriot Ledger | Posted May. 13, 2014 | www.patriotledger.com

SCITUATE – Monday brought a light southwesterly breeze, yet the 131-foot-long blades of the wind turbine on the Driftway weren’t moving, just as they hadn’t moved for more than two weeks.

Crews are working to solve mechanical issues at the 390-foot-tall turbine, which is owned by Scituate Wind LLC, a partnership between Palmer Capital Corp. and Solaya Energy.

Gordon Deane, president of Palmer Capital Corp., said Monday that crews have identified and addressed a number of problems at the turbine, but some persist.

“There are electrical issues we’ve been working through, and they’re tripping the turbine out and we’re working through that,” he said. “They haven’t been able to solve the problem.”

The turbine has failed to produce any electricity since April 26, according to Power Dash, a website that records the turbine’s energy production. It ran infrequently for several days before that, producing about 28,000 kilowatt hours of electricity on April 22, and less than 650 kilowatt hours on April 25.

Because exactly what went wrong has not been determined, when the turbine will be operational again is not known, Deane said.

The town leases the turbine site to Scituate Wind and buys the electricity the turbine produces.

Last July, the turbine was offline for more than two weeks after it was damaged by a lightning strike. Because of persisting problems, it ran only sporadically for several weeks after it was back in service.

Asked whether he’s concerned that the turbine has not produced electricity for 2½ weeks, Deane said he is not, because the turbine manufacturer has to take responsibility for the lost revenue.

“We have performance requirements, so we are protected,” he said. “Obviously we prefer that it be fixed, and so would the town.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/05/19/electrical-issues-have-scituate-wind-turbine-out-of-commission/