Many wind turbines nation wide are having problems with their gear boxes, the same thing that took down the turbine last month. If you remember the Town of Portsmouth was offered a deal on a spare gear box. Now you wonder why the talk of a gear box!

The turbine is not under warrantee, so the repairs will not cost the taxpayer plenty.

Many wind turbine companies ended up replacing all the gearboxes, a process that took six months but who pays in Portsmouth ? - You guessed it! The taxpayer.

Commercial wind power costs way too much. It receives more than half of its capital costs from the American public through a renewable energy tax on your electric bill and after the warranty runs out Jill and Joe taxpayer get stuck with the repairs.

Take a look at the abandoned turbines of the Kamaoa Wind Farm at Ka Lae on the Big Island of Hawaii ! Portsmouth next?

http://www.wind-watch.org/video-southpoint.php

That "lemon on a stick" is still in the black this fiscal year. I asked Dave Faucher and he said it is cash flow positive for the town, we are making money. Even with the downtime we've had.

Make mine lemonade. Extra sweet.

How much money did it make today?

It's in the black if you only look at half the figures and do some creative acounting. If you look at how many kilowatts they sold to National Grid and how much money they got and then look at what the town paid to buy back those same kilowatts then they are not even close to being in the black and when the price paid goes down to $0.04 per kilowatt they will be loseing even more.

Portsmouth Citizen why don't you give Dave Faucher a call and find out how much money the town made this week on the wind turbine. The lemonade is getting more bitter by the minute.

According to the Portsmouth budget for next year, the very last page, it says that the town will make no money on the turbine. It says the projected net revenue is $0.00. Am I misunderstanding the numbers?

Mark when you are selling electricity at wholsale rates and buying back that same electricity at retail rates then you are losing money on every kilowatt. To only show what you made at wholsale and say look we are turning a profit but not showing your expences that is creative accounting. This turbine could run 100% of the time and will never turn a profit we are paying National Grid more then they are paying us.

I think you need to look at the what actually happens. Under the net metering law the town gets credit for up to five properties that the town owns. the excess output is then compensated at the wholesale rate.

One more thing if we were selling at wholesale and then buying it back at retail it would make more sense to connect directly to the high school not to the grid first thereby we would power the high school from our source and sell the excess. Right now we are connected to the grid first because of net metering. If you have proof that the accounting is creative then get it out and expose it for what it is fraud. I suspect you have no proof and are just making suppositions. If you do provide proof I will be happy to apologies.

Never ever you sure about that? The only reason that we don't know about it breaking down is they are private. Also just because the Abbey is spinning it doesn't mean it is working or producing electricity. THe Abbey turbine needs higher winds to produce electricity than the high school one. However the Abbey's does something called windmilling which spins the blades but doesn't engage the turbine. The high school one doesn't do this so as to reduce wear and tear on the mechanics of the turbine.

The only reason we know that the hihg school turbine is broken down is people see that it's not turning and start to ask questions. The town has never been forth comming about problems to this turbine. They keep quiet and hope no one will notice until directly asked.

Mark you say the Abbey turbune requires highr winds but when questioned why the Abbey turbine is always turning when the High School turbine was not the town stated that the High School turbine required higher wind speed not the Abbey.

Bill,
Nothing private about it. You might want to look at the public money that helped pay for it.

From everything I have read it is not the gearbox it is a oil pressure monitor in the gearbox if it was the gearbox we would have bought the one that was offered to the town for half price. I would love to see where this information is coming from about shavings in the oil. By the way my understanding is the turbine shuts down automatically in these events specifically to prevent damage to the turbine.

Twice in one month the same problem and they didn't even know where the sensor was in the first place. The experts in Germany had them looking for a part theat did not exest. There is a bigger problem here the Flying Monkey Turbine Repair company does not have a clue what they are doing.

The issue is bigger than a $100.00 part. It's odd how the newspapers put out the good news about wind turbines with the "puff" stories but when it comes to a financial breakdown ,blade throw,turbine fire or gear box failure it just doesn't make the news.

This turbine qualifies for the "clunker program" . The breakdowns are getting closer together. It was once every couple of months and now every couple of weeks.

Sad

Nobody said it was maintence free they said it has not broken down big difference. The Portsmouth High Turbine might not be breaking down so often if they didn't hire The Flying Monkey Turbine Repair Company. Go with the low bidder and it always ends up costing more.

Actually he did say it is never down. If they didn't go with the lowest bidder you guys would be claiming that is was an inside job and someone was getting greased. BUT YOU GUYS ARE ALL RIGHT, BLOW THE THING UP AND BE DONE WITH IT. AFTER ALL THEY DON'T SEND OUT A PUBLIC ALERT WHEN IT STOPS WORKING. HECK THEY ALWAYS TELL US WHEN THE COP CARS BREAK DOWN OR THE FIRE ENGINE GETS AN OIL CHANGE.
People who don't want wind power don't want wind power. Nothing will change their minds. So have fun with all the complaining, lord knows I have never had a repair that failed on anything that I own and had repaired.

Mark when the taxpayers pay $2.918 Million for a police car of fire engine I do expect to be notified whan they are not working . The town had no problems sending out press releases when things go right with the turbine but are strangly silent when something goes wrong. I would not have a problem with wind but do have a problem whit how my tax dollars are spent. I as a taxpayer own a part of this turbine and want to be kept apprised of where my money is going.

Robert E. Not one penny of your tax dollar paid to the town of Portsmouth has gone toward the wind turbine. In fact every year it has been in operation it has paid for itself. Don't believe me go talk to Mr Faucher. In fact it is the only asset that has generated income for the town. Bill C go shill in some other town this isn't Mattapositt .

Mark, How much is it projected to make next year?

Albert, You are correct for this budget year that they just adopted it will brake even. It was projected to make about 11,000 but the town council shifted that money to a maintenance fund. The council felt the fund was underfunded because of the trouble we have been having. Of course this is all dependent on up time and wind conditions. Through last year the turbine was available 95% of the time when there was sufficient wind,despite what Bill claims.

Do us all a favor and go away. Why don't you worry about Mattapoisett and let us worry about Portsmouth.

By the way, some of your posts are down right stupid. Example: "The costs of the crane costs exceed $200,000.00, plus an energy/revenue loss of approximately $50,000.00; plus replacement gearbox, at over $450,000. Keep in mind much of the breakdown repair cost arise from the crane waiting time." I've been on more construction sites then I care to remember. $200,000? for use of a crane??? Are you a moron? $50,000 in lost revenue???? What planet are you on? Crawl back under your rock.

DITTO J.Lane......Go Away...

In fact you can go and see where it has contributed to the bottom line.

John just look at your electric bill under renewable energy charge that is where we are paying for this turbine without this subsidy they turbine would be seriously in the red.

Oh my God you are right let's take it down tomorrow. Oh wait won't I still pay that charge. So I would still pay it and recieve no benefit sounds kinda like my FICA taxes, by the time I retire I won't get anything worth while. But hey as long as the oil companies get their tax breaks. You know what lets sink exploration wells off Newport after all what's the worst that can happen. All kidding aside I know green energy is not cheap energy and it is heavily subsidize, however I honestly believe sometimes we have take a risk and try something new. I like nuclear power but imagine building a plant anywhere near here, never gonna happen. The government makes us subsidize all sorts of things look at your phone bill we pay for 911. We also subsidize the infrastruture to get internet to isolated parts of the country, We didn't tell them to live there. We susidize all sorts of industries in this country we just don't have the luxury of having it printed on a bill every month. Heck we've probably paid more to build Iraq's infrastructure in the past ten years than our own, but hay it's not like we have to pay tolls to cross our bridges.

Bob,
Everyone in the state pays a renewable energy charge. As I am sure you already know, National Grid is required to purchase a set percentage of its electricity from renewable sources. this is madated by RIGL's.

Sorry, but it is a necessary evil. We need to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.

Time To Admit It: Bill Carson has always been right on the Gearbox issue ! You didn't have to be Einstein to read the newspapers and figure out it was the Gearbox ! You must have by now ultimately concluded that I was right all the time. You'll have to to admit I was right and I have been proven to be right . Just saying

Time To Admit It: Bill Carson has always been right on the Gearbox issue ! You didn't have to be Einstein to read the newspapers and figure out it was the Gearbox ! You must have by now ultimately concluded that I was right all the time. You'll have to to admit I was right and I have been proven to be right . Just saying

You keep talking about a gearbox there has not been any mention of the Portsmouth WTG needing a gearbox. Your knowledge is slanted against WTG that is obvious. THe facts are to WTG has generated a considerable amount of money so far for the town. Yes that revenue with will be very small this year because the drop in electric rate but it is still presumed to break even. Since it started operating in 2009 it has contributed several hundred thousand dollars to Portsmouth bottom line.

Get your facts straight. The gearbox that was offered to us, (the owner came to us, we were not looking for one.) was obtained by the current owner through a brankruptcy proceding.

You might want to brush up on your engineering, an oil pressure sensor and an oil FOD sensor are two different things. And NO WHERE in any of your "data" is there any correlation between pressure sensor failure and gearbox failure. Believe it or not, residents of Portsmouth know how to Google too!

J Lane I have given up on Mr Bill Carson he hates turbines no matter what you post he will post again with more nonsense. He goes to every Patch site he can find an article about WTGs and posts negative comments. From Jamestown to Falmouth and I am sure many more, you would think one raised up and killed a close family member. But I appreciate your contributions.

I have been cracking up at your posts. I wish I had my own little bubble to live in. You really don't get any facts straight. AAER bought a license from WINDTEC. Fuhrlander also bought a license from Windtec, different companies. AAER was a poorly run company. They also built 3 other turbines. 2 in Tehachapi, CA and one in Templeton,MA. In my opinion, the reason the turbine breaks down so much is because of A. some poor design by WindTec B. The company they hired to work on that turbine had no business working on that turbine to begin with. I realize there is a lot of information on the internet, but you might want to stop posting about wind turbines. Just because you look up how to perform surgery on Youtube doesn't make you qualified to do it.

The maintance log should reflect the issues with the wind turbine. First check the manufactures recommended oil change for the gearbox. This should be the same as the Fuhrländer 1.5 MW .That's why they call Waigandshain, Germany for the parts.

The maintance log should be public record. A review should be conducted of the number of oil changes between the number of operating hours of the turbine. Then check how often the turbine has been shutting itself down between those oil changes. The oil sensor on this turbine should correspond to the number of shutdowns
http://www.windpowerengineering.com/tag/condition-monitoring/

"On-line oil sensors
These come in two types: Sensors that monitor the oil’s condition or chemistry are capable of detecting viscosity, oxidation, and water contamination. Sensors that detect the condition of the gearbox do so by detecting wear debris, contaminate, or particles carried in the oil.On-line oil particulate systems (wear debris sensors) are installed on the gearbox on either a primary oil-feed line or secondary oil-feed line to monitor the presence of particles in the oil. As bearings and gears degrade, they produce wear debris. If there are metal pieces in the oil, there must be a problem with either a bearing or a gear."

I had to look that up but I like it.

What is a sea lawyer? It is someone who has more than average knowledge of rules. The term is an old navy term that means the individual knows nothing about what they are talking about. AKA - A way to bully someone off a blog post

In a country of freedom of speech there is nothing more frustrating than being accused of something.

How to respond to false accusations: If you make accusations and your wrong you need to apologize. There is NO need to make attacks on individuals trying to post and educate the public on the catastrophic wind turbine failure and the failure of local and state government

What is a sea lawyer? It is someone who has more than average knowledge of rules. The term is an old navy term that means the individual knows nothing about what they are talking about. AKA - A way to bully someone off a blog post

In a country of freedom of speech there is nothing more frustrating than being accused of something.

How to respond to false accusations: If you make accusations and your wrong you need to apologize. There is NO need to make attacks on individuals trying to post and educate the public on the catastrophic wind turbine failure and the failure of local and state government

Mr. Carson,
I am quite sure that all Portsmouth residents have an opinion about our turbine. I am also quite sure that pro or con, one thing we can all agree on is: We don't like outsiders preaching to us.

Just so there is no mis-understanding, I have read many of your posts, here and in Mattapoisett and even Falmouth. You do not like Turbines. Ok, I get that. What I don't get is that here (Portsmouth Patch) you complain about reliability. In Falmouth, you preach "Health and safety concerns"...What is it? Any arguement against is good enough for you?

Well enjoy the ride, and welcome to Portsmouth.

Good luck with that

How about your ultimate goal for our WTG what are you looking for Bill? Still waiting for that answer.

Bill you are dense you already know the answer to that question several people have told you it was offered from the creditors of AAER which you know. Still waiting for you end game answer what do you want happen. Really what is your point we bought it we are stuck with it not you. So what do you want to happen?

Once again you are using false analogies. The gearbox was offer by the creditors of AAER trying to recover their losses they had three of them and offered them to all the AAER customers. There once again has been no statement of our turbine needing to have the gearbox replaced. If and when it does then we as a ton will have a decision to make, however not you as you are from Mattapositt. If you problem is the this should not have ever happened then you should be directing your energy higher up. But all you are doing here is calling the people of Portsmouth Stupid. I for one am sick of it. If Robert E writes something I respect his position he is a resident, and was probably against the turbine from the start but you BLOW. I really don't understand what you are hoping for. What do you want us to dismantle it and say Bill Carson from Mattapositt was right we still have to pay for it?

Mark in the begining I was a supporter of the wind turbine but my opinion has changed over time. I live literally in the shadow of the turbine and I can tell you that shadow flicker can drive you crazy sometimes the town did not site this turbine properly it was supposed to go up at the middle school but the FAA would not let them so they put it at the high school inthe middla of a residential neighbourhood without concern to the local residents. I am glad we can agree to disagree.

Yes I totally respect your position. You have a legitimate issue. I just can't stand Mattapositt Bill Carson and the non sense he continues to spin.
Well one benefit of it not working no flicker for you.

The current maintenance company for the turbine took over around January of 2011 ($33,000.00 per year) . Prior to the current maintenance company taking over during 2010 the reset button on the turbine was being pushed every 6 to 8 hours. There was a long period of time in which the Town of Portsmouth had its own employees restarting the turbine from the time the original wind turbine contractor went bankrupt. Don't be too quick to blame the current maintenance company . The town was doing their own maintenance on the turbine from August 2010 til almost the end of that year .

If the turbine suffered significant damage the question will be who,what,when and where did the damage occur ?

On August 13, 2010, AAER Inc. went out of business as per its reorganization under Canadian Companies Creditors Arrangement.

GE and Siemens want nothing to do with one off turbines. They only want to sell in lots like the farms out west. I believe the Vestas turbine was way out of the price range approved by the voters. The biggest problem with municipalities buying turbines is the money has to be approved first then the contract has to be put out for bid. The company that puts forth the best product that falls with in the range approved by the voters gets the contract. In this case only one company came anywhere close to the $3 million mark. When we got only one bid near our number we should have said no and gone back to the voters for a new number. AAER needed to sell turbines so badly they took a lose on the Portsmouth job. Which is one of the reasons they went out of business.

Oh gee Bill thanks for telling us how stupid us country bumpkins in Portsmouth are, having fallen for a snake oil salesman.
Once again Bill what is your end game with the Portsmouth WTG. If everything you proclaim is true, which I think you you are full of it, nothing changes for us here in Portsmouth we still have a turbine that needs to be paid for.
Please Please tell us what you want to happen to our wind turbine here in Portsmouth?

I'll tell you, Mark, what to do, scrap it, eat a little crow, count our losses and move on. This nice litttle New England town has no need to place stress on the citizens who live here with a green engery wet dream of a few green nuts. This was way to much to bite off in this corner of our little paradise, and I do mean it sincerly.
Lee

Look for todays date (July 13) on his posts.