Wind Turbine Repair

It was a Sunday (end April/early May) and the wind was howling.
Golfers said the 107-yard water hole was playing 145 yards.
And they said the wind turbine's rotors were "really flying, like a helicopter".

Well, all hell broke loose during a rogue gust before the turbine's controls could move it out of the wind.
Immediately, the 10kW wind turbine stopped responding to wind direction.

Something was obviously wrong.
Probably seriously wrong.

So last week, Paul Wende and Hugh Cameron lowered the tower via its hydraulic arm and opened the nacelle. 

Hugh (at left) and Paul lowered the turbine and opened the nacelle for the inspection.

What did they discover?

A cast mounting bracket for the yawing motor had several broken "feet" (one having perhaps failed some time ago).  With the loss of a second foot during this storm event, the bracket could no longer hold the top bearing of the yaw shaft and the mounting bracket failed entirely.

Paul Wende discovers what part has failed.

The two broken "feet" of the mounting bracket for the yawing motor are easily seen (above photo) at bottom left of the exposed orange painted cast part (where the broken two feet failed and were shorn away from the orange-painted bracket.)  The parts were found--and removed--from inside the nacelle.

Pointing the camera inside, standing on my toes, everything else looks fine, says Paul Wende.

The broken bracket (and recovered broken bits of feet) were "rearranged" at Aberdeen Machine Shop, who will cast a new mounting bracket by mid-week.

Then it's fingers crossed that was the only item to fail during the storm!

"Golfers have been asking if the turbine fell down," grins Kia.

Thank goodness the answer to that is NO.