Warning about flange and structural cracking on the original installed

These pictures were provided by the maintenance staff at Presentation Sisters in Aberdeen, SD.
Safety Maintenance Alert Turbine Model: RPI 20kW with original "Flat Root" blades and original blade flange. These pictures are of a weld failure on the original installed flange and structural cracking on the original installed blades. The system has been running since April 2013 with a QED control system. It was lowered for routine annual maintenance.
QED recommends an immediate system stop and inspection of any systems in operation that are using original RPI blade Components. It is our opinion that these original installed blades and flange represent a safety concern.
*please note that systems running Round Root bladesets should also be inspected.
Please contact Scott Fouts of QED Wind Power with any questions.
scott@QEDWINDPOWER.com
These pictures were provided by the maintenance staff at Presentation Sisters in Aberdeen, SD.

Redriven owners - Scott sent a bunch of pictures but this one was the one that said it all to me.  If you have a redriven that is still running, be sure to inspect the blades for cracks.

Reports of issues with the Redriven 20KW Turbines blades

It seems there are a few reports of Redriven 20KW wind turbines breaking off blades during high winds and a few others that almost had the same fate. (See the comment left on my April 4 entry).

Here is what I’ve found:

Back in February, there was a report of a high school with three Redriven turbines that had blades hit the pole and flew off. See this link for more details

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2009/02/10/blade-breaks-off-wind-turbine/

Here is an account of several more having the same issue.

http://www.windaction.org/news/20716

I contacted Scott Jackson who wrote the report. He said that the 10KW are not having the same issues with the blades breaking up but have had controller issues.

He gave me the name of someone with the 10KW in his back yard. He said this person could tell me about the controller issue first hand. I called him and he said that he did have controller issues, but Redriven took care of the problem by providing a retro fit. They added a resistive load. He has not had the problems since the retrofit. He's not worried about the blade issue and is now thinking of getting a 20KW with a tilt up tower. ( I didn't know 20KW could tilt up). He would then move his 10KW to another site. He said that he can see many wind turbines from his property. During a recent storm, many of turbines in the view from his home lost blades. He hasn’t lost a blade yet.


I also found this article about how Redriven is fixing the issues at Perkins High School.

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/04/18/news/mj913904.txt

This article says that Redriven is replacing the blades at Perkins High School with an older technology blade and is monitoring now for vibrations.

I would love to hear more from people with first hand experiences with Redriven. Please contact me or post your comments.

*******Update *** 5-30-09 here is another artical on this topic ******

http://www.agrinewsinteractive.com/fullstory.htm?ArticleID=10072&ShowSection=News


******Update ****10-03-09 I found more info on the Perkins School . Here is a news letter tell more details about testing and new blades.
http://www.perkins.k12.oh.us/pages/uploaded_files/Perkins%20United%20Fall%202009%20for%20web.pdf

also a news paper article
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2009/08/31/front/1582172.txt


UPDATE - May 2010 ****see what Redriven says about new designs