The turbine has been out of commission now for many months but was back in action this week. | By Michael Johnson | Wadena Pioneer Journal | March 18, 2022 | www.wadenapj.com
HEWITT – The three blades of the Wing River Wind turbine south of Wadena can be seen turning once more.
Passerby may have noticed the massive rotor has been motionless since about last November. But it sprang to life in the first week of March.
Minnesota Power purchases the energy generated from this turbine, Amy Rutledge, Minnesota Power communications specialist confirmed. She added that she could not comment on the reasoning for the outage, but was informed that it was to be operational again in March, which came to fruition.
Don Mcintire, of Hewitt, who owns the property where the turbine is rooted, said the outage can mostly be blamed on COVID. There was an electrical recloser that needed replacing on the unit, which had to make its way to Illinios and back. The recloser is like a circuit breaker on household electric lines, it shuts off electric power when trouble occurs, such as a short circuit.
“Due to COVID they waited and waited for parts,” Mcintire said. He maintains the driveway to the turbine and helped load up the large parts for replacement. While it took longer to get everything back in place than he hoped, he agrees it’s nice to see it spinning once more.
This turbine was celebrated in 2007 with developers and area leaders offering speeches and the Bertha-Hewitt marching band playing songs. It was even blessed.
It was meant to be the beginning of a much larger project in Todd and Otter Tail Counties as part of the Bear Creek Wind Partners plan to construct up to a 47.5 megawatt large wind farm. At first plans were to build 12 more turbines by 2008. Than the plan expanded to 22 units. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission authorized the construction and issued a permit that was set to expire in 2039. Even so, with no action taken since May 2009, the permit was revoked in September 2014. Developers said in 2013 that they no longer planned to pursue the project.
And so, the dream of adding many more was dashed and the lone wind tower remains on its own, but now back in action.
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URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2022/03/18/wind-turbine-spins-again-near-hewitt/