There is no guarantee that a warranty will be available in 5 years nor is there any assurance that the manufacturer will even be in business... so why should we Islanders be taking this risk? $47,000,000.00 is a lot of coin for PEI to bet its future on...the following are some comments I made back in May when these turbines started to break down...
There now appears to be lots of private enterprise operators prepared to take the risk of investing in and operating wind farms so it would be a great opportunity for the Province to shed the risk now and sell, sell, sell,... before all the our components fail...I understand why Governments initially invest in new ventures in order prove to the marketplace that there is opportunity here but I never understand why they don't know when to get out? If we sold now we (Islanders) may even make some money for a change.... there are just too many things that can go wrong so let others take the risk.
Wind turbines still down
Monday, July 14, 2008
CBC News
Replacing the gearboxes in six faulty wind turbines at East Point in Prince Edward Island is taking longer than expected.
'We have to go back to the company and recoup these losses.'— Ron Estabrooks, energy advisor
The Vestas turbines were shut down in March after problems were discovered in the gearboxes during routine inspection. Three of the 10 turbines on the site are still not operating.
The province, which owns the wind farm, expected the work to be completed by the end of June. The turbines are under warrantee, and Vestas is paying for the repairs as well as covering for the power lost during the shutdown.
"We have to do the figures on that," Ron Estabrooks, an energy adviser with the province, told CBC News on Friday.
"There's a method to calculate what we would have had in production and of course we do have interruption insurance or a warranty on that. So we have to go back to the company and recoup these losses."
He said the last three turbines should be up and running in the next few weeks. High winds and road closures in late spring slowed down the work at East Point.
The province is two years into its five-year warranty on the Vestas turbines. It costs the province $1 million a year to cover the warranty, operation and maintenance of the site. The capital cost for the wind farm was $47 million.
Estabrooks said the province will likely extend the warranty after five years.
Monday, July 14, 2008
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