She's Up and Flying Again.

[Andy Rhody]

After almost 4 years of being out of service I finally got my windmill back up and running. First of all it started turning slowly no matter how strong the wind was. I took it to an industrial motor place and they said that in the "slip ring" area a wire was rubbing against the frame and wore the insulation off causing it to short and turn slowly and they fixed it. That was no big deal but then the inverter went down. I got a new Power One. It worked for one Kwh and then started giving all kinda of alarms. Couldn't figure it out. A guy put a meter on the underground cable and said that he thought the wiring was bad but wasn't sure. This Summer I ran a belt from and electric motor to the windmill and the inverter worked! Sounded like the cable really was bad so I dug it up and laid a new one. Pulling the old one up through I saw it right away. A burnt cable about half way up the pole. Must of been lightning. Now is working perfectly.

It's great having wind again. Although it only does 7% of our electric bill, it pumps power when our 6.8 KW solar is sleeping. Had a low solar day yesterday and the windmill made twice and much as the solar. Wind and solar are truly complimentry.

Here's my original post:

https://www.greenpowertalk.org/showthread.php?t=16847

https://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/Science/2019-1_zpscezyyzzz.jpg

https://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/Science/2019-12_zpsyjafr0f9.jpg (https://s41.photobucket.com/user/andy47bottles/media/Science/2019-1_zpscezyyzzz.jpg.html)

[Andy Rhody]

https://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/Science/2019-16_zpsuxpuounm.jpg (http://s41.photobucket.com/user/andy47bottles/media/Science/2019-16_zpsuxpuounm.jpg.html)


https://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/Science/2019-19_zpsidbyusek.jpg (http://s41.photobucket.com/user/andy47bottles/media/Science/2019-19_zpsidbyusek.jpg.html)


https://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/Science/2019-21_zpswdgoxw6u.jpg (http://s41.photobucket.com/user/andy47bottles/media/Science/2019-21_zpswdgoxw6u.jpg.html)

[Ralph Day]

Congratulations Andy. Glad to see it up and running again.

Any bubbled paint or scorch marks on the outside of the mast where the burnout was? My mast is 80 feet, gin pole up and down, but just imagining what that much scaffolding would be like to scamper up and down...eek!

Ralph

[Andy Rhody]

Thanks Ralph. Nothing on the outside of the pole. My guess is that the pole although grounded with no. 6 grounding wire to an 8 foot rod was touching the cable and it jumped though the insulation.

Yeah, only 25 feet of scaffolding but a lot of work but gives a pretty good platform to work from and at 60 bucks, much cheaper than a bucket truck.

[Rob Beckers]

Nice work Andy!
It's getting tough to keep grid-tie wind turbines going, now that nobody makes inverters for them any more.

Good looking turbine though!

-RoB-

[Andy Rhody]

Thanks Rob.

Nobody makes grid tie inverters anymore?

What's this world coming to?

[Rob Beckers]

Nope...
We had three brands of UL/CSA listed grid-tie inverters for wind: Power-One/ABB, SMA, and Ginlong. All three have stopped making and supporting them. You can't even get them to fix a broken one any more.

My guess (based on my own front-line support for Power-One) is that wind inverters were just a percent or so of total inverter sales, while accounting for at least 80% of support calls. They were too complex for people, due to the MPPT table that's needed, and with wind turbines running away all the time they would die from over-Voltage. All leading to support calls.

The makers of grid-tie wind turbines make their own inverter (like Bergey does). Possibly some use a converter that allows a PV inverter to be used. There's an Irish company that makes one, but the name escapes me now. When I find it I'll edit this post, in case anyone is looking for a solution.

-RoB-

[Sean Moore]

https://www.voltsys.com/

[Rob Beckers]

Indeed! Thanks Sean!
In particular this unit: https://www.voltsys.com/voltsys-inverter-control-unit/
It works with an ABB inverter and adjusts inverter output on-the-fly based on an MPPT curve you program into the unit. Talks via RS-485 to the inverter. Very clever idea!

That's the only wind-inverter replacement I know about though. If anyone knows of other ways to do this please post!

-RoB-