Wind Turbine blade root repairs mean downtime

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 12:36.
Wind Turbine blade root repairs mean downtime

Answer:  Neo has no multi-megawatt wind turbines as of May, 2009 - and we have no jobs related to wind which would produce experience in this line of work.  (not that Clipper wanted the experience - I'm sure they didn't).

The photo is kindly supplied by a New York source and shows one of four blade clusters undergoing blade root repair at the Steelwinds project in Lackawanna/Hamburg, New York.
Steelwinds is a Clipper Wind project which (last year)was first hampered by gear/gear box failures - which required each of the 8 turbines at the Bethleham site to have their gear boxes removed and replaced.  
As of mid-May, 2009, 4 of the 8 turbines have their three blades removed for glass composite repair/strengthening.   I don't know the mode of failure but it is located at the outward portion of the round root of each blade.  The blades were manufactured in Brazil according to Clipper.
The remaining 4 turbines are in operation.
Steelwinds is an ideal site for the installation of wind turbines, and I am sympathetic with what must be seen as a discouraging chain of events for Clipper. New designs aren't easy - the European wind turbine companies can attest to that I am sure.
However,  during the same period that Clipper and Hamburg have made mistakes and attempted to fix them, Cleveland and NorthEastOhio have done nothing. 
I'm not sure which is more discouraging.

clipper lackawanna liberty wind turbine blade root repairs may 2009

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