This is what three Westwind turbines look like when they’re crated up.
Yesturday, West Coast Energee arrived to take down the turbine at the community recycling site. The machine is heading back to Ireland for refurbishment. It’s been operational for 18 months now and in this time the manufacturer has improved the design. Community Energy Scotland have arranged for a number of Westwind machines to return to the factory and all be brought up to the current specification. The trailer contains the machines from Galson, Back and Barvas. Our machine was also added to the collection.
This time, to speed up the process, the engineers used a mini-digger to help lowering the tower. Normally, JDs battered old LandRover gets tied to a ground anchor and they use the winch mounted on the bumper. Instead, a long cable was attached to the digger, and as it slowly advanced towards the tower, the turbine came down. We took advantage of having the digger on site to put some stone down in the soft bits of ground. The Landrover nearly got stuck in the peat the last time the tower came down. The access track gets very soft in the Winter.
We are now hoping for a calm few weeks whilst the machines are down. The Urgha site is now being more careful with its electricity. We now have to pay for everything we use.
Let’s also see if anyone notices that the turbine and tower are down!