The second time my wee wind turbine stopped working, it was for good. There was a mention of something being “fried,” which apparently is a turbine-killer. I decided to go with a 1kW Whisper 200 wind generator on a 40-foot pole. In November 2014, it was up and spinning…
But, a week later, we had a night of gusty winds. Out here, “gusty” is informally defined as “sounds like a jet engine and can blow over a Smart Car.” I woke up to the birds chirping, the sun shining, and a wind generator pole that looked like this…
“Hmm…” I said to myself. “Something’s not right.” The rebar anchors had unbent, going from “P” shapes to open “L” shapes, allowing the pole to sway and finally bend.
The installers were out within a few hours. They took down the pole, replaced the rebar anchors with rock bolts, cut the bent part out of the pole and re-connected the two pieces, and voila…
Wind power (again)!
It this were a happy story, it would end here, with restored wind power and smiles. Unfortunately, this was not the case…