LACKAWANNA WIND TURBINE KAIZEN

The abandoned Bethlehem Steel facility rests like detritus amongst mountains of slag.- wily cottonwoods and eight new Clipper turbines spout up from the debris - the old steel site is so large - 1500 acres – running several miles along the shore of Lake Erie, that it would be easily feasible to install more than 100 turbines here. This is a perfect location for turbines.

I had to talk my way into the private property – shared with gravel, lumber, concrete and other heavy businesses. I spoke with Stanley Tehee, the Commissioning Engineer from Clipper, who at first told me no go (insurance regs, construction haz, the usual obfuscation stuff), but I knew enough about turbines to convince him that this was an opportunity for PR for Clipper and wind energy. This is Clipper’s (a Calif. Company) first installation anywhere, and they are probably a bit concerned that their machines get up and christened and shaken out before they really let in the public. Any mechanical problems or failure here will be critical to Clipper’s business prospects. Clipper has implemented a novel generator configuration in the nacelle: instead of one generator, Clipper has four smaller generators connected to a gear system which divides the turbine's input torque. My bet is that this complex gear train will have maintenance issues.

Although there was a 35 knot wind blowing this morning, none of the machines were turning. With my taxi cab waiting with its meter running at $50 – I couldn’t get into the details of what was holding the machines off the grid. What I did learn is that Clipper is desperate for towers – these eight came from Chattanooga. Clipper is interested in any type of tower – ie concrete or steel – or a hybrid. Business opp. here.

Meanwhile, back in Cleveland, Ronn Richard, Steve Dever, Dave Nash, Lisa Hong, William Mason, and the other members of the Cuyahoga County Wind “Task Force” are recommending “installing about 10 turbines about 3 miles off Cleveland in Lake Erie in about 6 years”. Several things are wrong with the Cleveland picture. In six years Cleveland will be toast when it comes to wind experience. Buffalo and Lackawanna have the pedal to the metal. Cleveland needs to attract wind component manufacturing and erect wind turbines on land within the next 12 months. That’s what will provide jobs in NEO and clean energy into the grid.

Iconic turbines out in the Lake is a goal for Cleveland way down the road. Cleveland doesn’t need iconic, Cleveland needs jobs and practical objectives for the county taxpayers' dollars. I bet no one on the Cuyahoga wind "task force" has visited Lackawanna. Tell me I'm wrong...

No wifi at the Buffalo Greyhound station. So I post from Toronto instead. On the road reporting. Pretty cool Realneo web 2!