Glory Reitz
Assistant Editor
Wind instructor Chris Catron plans to reinstate Crowder’s wind turbine to service, despite delays caused by the coronavirus. The Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Technology (MARET) Center’s wind turbine has sat idle for five years, and will have to wait just a little longer.
According to Melissa Oates, Crowder Technical Education Center (CTEC) director, Crowder obtained the 1984 NordTank turbine in 2008 from a Tehachapi, Cal. wind farm that was being decommissioned. The turbine was either free or extremely discounted, so most of Crowder’s expenses were limited to transportation, a concrete foundation and installation.
According to Chris Catron, Crowder’s wind energy instructor, when the turbine was functioning, the electricity it generated flowed directly to the utility power grid. From there, energy went to the building in the immediate area that was drawing the most power. Crowder, in turn, received a credit for the power the turbine generated and saw a coordinating decrease in the college’s energy bill.
The turbine was determined unsafe to operate when the nacelle (the top portion, to which the blades attach) began to wobble, threatening to fall if Crowder continued to run it as usual. Since then, it has been retired from generating electricity and used instead as a training facility for wind students to practice climbing.
Catron, a former machinist, felt he might be able to figure out what was wrong with the turbine. “I got my students to go up there and take some measurements and take a look,” he said.
“I and a small crew of about half a dozen interns for the school were able to do some intermediate troubleshooting,” said Konnor Howard, a wind student, “such as tracing wires, finding out what is wrong with one of the motors, and torquing the tower bolts.”
The team discovered two main problems with the turbine’s operation. First, the gears inside the “yaw” gearbox are worn to a point where they can’t properly stabilize the nacelle, causing it to swing back and forth in the wind. Second, the turbine has been struck by lightning multiple times, which has damaged its electronic control system.
To solve the electronics problem, Catron said he’s been in contact with Alfredo Ytteson of Computronics, who is an expert on the exact brand and model of Crowder’s turbine. Decades ago, Ytteson worked as a technician on this same model of NordTank turbine.
Catron said they have also discussed having Ytteson build a more up-to-date Human Machine Interface (HMI) for Crowder’s wind program. This would mean more efficient operation and allow Catron and his team to access the turbine’s data from inside the MARET Center on a touchscreen, instead of rigging up a laptop to a special machine.
The mechanical problem of the worn-down gears was supposed to be a project for a group of advanced students this semester. All that was lacking was a steel bracket to hold the nacelle in place when they removed the gearbox to replace it.
“We do have [a yaw gearbox] in the lab…. It’s been repaired and re-machined: it’s perfect. And we were hoping to install it,” said Catron. But when the college closed on March 16 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, all work on the turbine was forced to halt.
According to Ray Lancaster, a second-year wind student, “The longer [the turbine] sits idle, the harder it will be to solve all of the problems that it currently has, plus the problems that can develop while it sits idle.”
In addition to the delay in reparation, many students have been disappointed and set back in their studies. They were supposed to gain the experience of repairing the turbine, and some have lost that opportunity altogether.
“Each year I’ve got two-year students that are basically fully-trained,” Catron said, “and that’s about the point where you start trusting them to work on the machine. And then they graduate.”
Catron explained that he will have to get newer students up to speed before he can have them working on the turbine. He now expects to finish the project sometime in the next two years. Before they can do anything to the gearbox in the nacelle, students must be able to climb the tower safely.
The students who had already begun work on the turbine are disappointed, but retain an optimistic outlook.
“Because [Crowder’s] alternative energy programs are so hands-on in terms of in-person lecture and labs, I daresay everyone’s training has been disrupted,” said Howard. “I have one more semester at Crowder College, where I hope… to work for the school again as I did this semester.”
Others, like Ray Lancaster, will not have this opportunity again.
“I was able to make a small contribution, but I really wanted to see it run again while I was a student at Crowder,” said Lancaster. “That said, I have faith that the wind students that follow me will be able to get the turbine operational again under the supervision of Chris Catron.”
Instead, students like Lancaster will have to seek practical experience on their own, putting their education to work in the wind energy field. Wind technicians are, according to Catron, one of the top-growing jobs in this country and many others.
This is for good reason. In the words of Chris Catron: “As long as the earth turns and the sun shines on it, there’s gonna be wind.”
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