The following is an email from retired civil engineer Lynn Shafer on his experience with the Honeywell Windtronics turbine. Shafer lives in Sedalia, Missouri. If the company posts a response, I’ll add it here. See the earlier Honeywell Windtronics WT6500 Report from the Field
Normally I don’t get involved in commercial disputes such as this. However, Lynn had contacted me because I had written an article critical of their claims and because I am a proponent of wind energy.–Paul Gipe
A pair of local tool and mold shops are owed about $375,000 by a Michigan-based wind turbine company which has closed its production plant after only two years of operation in Windsor.
These are photos of the Honeywell Windtronics turbine on display at a vendors booth at the CanSIA exhibition in Toronto, December 5, 2011.
Windtronics Inc. has scaled back production of small residential and commercial wind turbines at its Windsor plant because incentives for such projects have not yet been included in the province’s Green Energy Act, says the president of the Michigan-based company.
But so far, we’ve seen only a fraction of the total power that WindTronics says we should for our area, even after several visits from a company-authorized installer. At that rate, the Honeywell wouldn’t pay its way over its expected life of 20 years.
A Windtronics wind turbine under test at SEPEN in southern France was removed within the first month of operation, according to Jay Hudnall, an expert in the French small wind turbine industry.
After posting my article Honeywell Windtronics WT6500 Report from the Field, the president of the company contacted me to note that their web site clearly says that they recommend using the turbine only at sites with a 12 mph average annual wind speed.
Retired civil engineer Lynn Shafer wants to do the right thing and leave the world a better place for future generations. In 2010 he installed 5 kW of solar PV on his house near Sedalia, Missouri. There’s not a lot of solar PV in Missouri, the “show me state” and when Shafer installed his system the local paper published a page one spread on the project.
I’ve reviewed the series of preproduction wind turbine designs from Earthtronics twice before. See below.
Conclusion? Again, it’s unlikely that this wind turbine will produce the reported generation anywhere in Michigan by a large margin.
2023 © Wind-Works by Paul Gipe