Installation Next Week?

My Installer says they are coming next week to put up my tower! Can I believe it?


As you can see I haven’t written in my blog for a long time. I was thoroughly discussed with this whole thing and thinking that I should have never done this. Two of my coworkers who ask me all the time “did you get your wind turbine yet?” Were sorry they asked when I started complaining to them. I realized the other day if only I had put my money in the stock market, it would have doubled by now. They told me that power generation companies always have in their contracts that the generator service providers must pay the cost of any down time or lost power. Doesn’t matter if the problem is late installation or malfunctions, if there is any down time they get paid for power lost. I didn’t expect this in my wildest dreams, but I did expect that if I’ve been waiting for a part since March that it would be delivered by now. Three months of lost power could pay for the cover to be Fedexed. Why was I waiting to get booked on the next slow boat from China? I decided to call the guy at the top. The very first person I called about Redriven almost 1.5 years ago was Christopher Grant, one of the owners of ReDriven.

I told Chris  that I was totally discussed that I’ve after a year and a half, all I have is a block of cement. He said he thought that all my parts had been delivered in Feb. but he wasn’t sure if my blades had the right drilling and that he would call me back.

When he called back he told me that all my parts were there and that he just wasn’t sure if the blades had the right holes drilled. There was a change in the bolt pattern in the blades so they fit the flange. He said that he had a temporary cover that could be used until the new improved cover was delivered. The Controller card I was waiting for could be by-passed and the old controller system could be used until the new controller card could be installed. He told me (as he told many of you when you called about my web site) that they were completely re-designing the system one piece at a time. First the Controller was redesigned before I put in my order, then the blades (see blade issue blog ). Next they re-designed the tower because of failing FEA (Finite Element Analyses). Last the turbine itself – hence the missing cover (one last part to be built). He said that the generator was now NEMA class H winding rated at 180 degrees Celsius.

About an hour after he verified that all my parts were there and I was ready to be installed, Ginny Weaver called and said they are coming next week and they would call later and tell me more details about what day. They need to rent some equipment to assemble the tower.

Christopher told me about this YouTube video that shows the new system that I will be getting. This shows the complete new tower base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46xwwEKRYMs

The second video is a turbine that my installer put up. It says 80 meters, but it is really 80feet. Shows the turbine and top of the tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl4QQx6HfYQ

You see the tower is now one large hydraulic instead of two, the Nacelle has a different shape. I think he said the blue is the temporary cover. The blades look more aero dynamic. Chris said they hired an experienced engineer from LM Glasfiber to design them.

I used to scan the Internet weekly for any new Redrive information, but since the New Year, I guess I gave up hope that this would ever really happen. I stopped looking. People that commented on this site and I couldn’t believe that I still had nothing yet one year and four months later.


As you can see from my blog my installer has been stringing me along with “just a couple of weeks” since July 09. Instead of just telling me last July when NYSERDA approved my project that the manufacture was redesigning the whole thing and that is wouldn’t come for many more months, he kept telling me it was going to be 3 more weeks. Then my turbine was delivered in Feb, he kept telling me a few more weeks. (Update 5-22-10 - my installer says that he was just telling me what ReDriven was telling him - read my May 22 blog and you will see why the installer seems more credible here than Redriven)


Redriven tells me they have a huge backlog of people waiting for their turbines. We are all in queue for a turbine with no published track record. I guess that is better than one with a poor track record.  Redriven says that the new design is much more reliable. We hope they are right.

I guess that my installer didn’t want to do my installation because he knew he would have to make a return trip or two when the real cover and controller came in. Which means a long drive for him and his crew. I guess I’ll have to hear his side of this. Truth is always better in the long run.

Chris Grant says the people at NYSERDA have always been updated on what was happening. I guess that is why they were not concerned about how long this was taking. They did call me about a month ago checking up on what was happening. They said they wanted to see if everyone is getting the same story.

Chris Grant from Redriven told me that they are submitting for the small wind certification and they’re seeing a much more reliable system with the new design. He said that updating the web site hasn’t been a priority for them. I guess it wouldn’t be a priority to let everyone know there is no history on the new turbine and they are fresh off the design bench.

Turbine coming and insurance issues

I got a call from Rural Wind and Electric, they say the container is out of customs and will be delivered on Monday to their office.

Early this week, I didn't want to get my hopes up, but it appeared that I might get a turbine soon. So I gave my insurance agent a call. This summer when I thought my turbine would be coming soon ;) I called my insurance company and it was only going to be a few dollars on to my policy to add an “appurtenant structure” to the policy.

This time, however, it occurred to me that the wind turbine is really on a separate piece of land so there might be an issue with putting it on my homeowners policy.

The agent called today and said it is a good thing that the turbine is not on the same land. If it were, they would have to cancel my policy. There name, so you can avoid them, is Peerless Insurance.

He said they could write a liability policy for the land, as its own plot. He said that as long as there is a chance (Very small chance) that we might get a check back from National Grid that it is commercial not personal. Also, we should put a fence around it to keep out unwanted visitors too. We had a fence, but took it down when they started constructing the foundation. I guess we’ll need to put that back up.

It would be really bad to pay for insurance and find out after an event that you were really not covered, but I don’t want to over pay either.

My installer says the All State will put it in a home owners policy. But it looks like I'll need a separate policy for my land. I'd like to get more than just liability too.