More wind turbines made by Redriven Power of Iroquois, Ontario continue to self destruct. The first set of wind turbine blades flew off February 7th, at the Perkins High School, in Perkins Ohio. Ed Sharp was standing on his back porch when he heard a sound like a shotgun. Out of balance because of a missing blade, the turbine and its tower began shaking, the remaining two blades banging against a 60 foot support pole and the 30 foot wide windmill "just blew apart," Sharpe said.
One blade ended up in the student parking lot and the other had pieces in the football field end zone. It was a Saturday, the students were not in school, and no one was injured.
The last storm that blasted through Northern California two weeks ago ripped two more ReDriven windmills. One of the windmills was providing power for an organic fig farm packing operation west of Corning. "...one of the blades was at least 100 yards in the walnut orchard, one was at the base of the tower, and the third blade hung from the tower ready to fall to the ground like the others," said Scot Black of Chico, California. "It's a good thing the harvest was in, there is usually 20 people working around this windmill," Black continued.
Bill St. Clair, the installing contractor for many of the ReDriven windmills in Northern California, was checking up on a 20kw ReDriven windmill east of Artios California, in an almond orchard, and heard the blades hitting the tower. "It was picking up speed and you could see one of the blades was broken at the connection flange, it looked ready to let go, so I ran to the electrical disconnect and shut it down." St. Clair said. "We also have a ReDriven 20kw east of Wheatland that the owner ran out in the middle of the night and had to shut it down because it was shaking so bad." So far no one has been injured.
Scott Jackson, the President of Power Shacks, who's company sold 17 of these windmills in Northern California, has had a difficult time keeping them running. "Of the 17 units we sold only 4 are running, We no longer sell these windmills, but we are working diligently with ReDriven's CEO Joseph Innai, to make our clients whole." Jackson said. "We represent 6 other windmill manufacturers from 4 different countries all from Europe and North America, and this experience makes us all look bad, Thank God there have not been any injuries, Redriven wind turbine also not reliable in quality."
Scott Jackson can be reached at 530-894-5590