Windmills Fail Even in Zeeland

If they could make windmills work anywhere, it would be in Zeeland, Michigan. After all, the town was established by Dutch immigrants and named after a province in Holland, which is famous for using windmills to pump water out of their sub–sea level country back when wind was modern technology. But wind power fails even there:

Two 125-foot-tall wind turbines owned by the city of Zeeland were initially expected to pay for themselves in about 10 years, but are being retired and removed … due to equipment failure, economic issues and under-performance.

The total project cost Zeeland $600,000.

No worries; taxpayers have plenty more money where that came from.

Both turbines were removed from service in April 2018 after a portion of the west wind turbine’s blade was found about 250 feet away in a Helder Park soccer field.

Good thing it didn’t cancel the carbon footprint of any soccer players by cutting them in half.

Did they put up the wind turbines because they made sense? No; they were forced to:

When they were installed in 2009, the purpose was to demonstrate wind as an energy source and satisfy Zeeland’s mandate from the state for its renewable energy portfolio requirement.

At least bureaucrats learned from this expensive debacle and will stop throwing other people’s money to the four winds. Ha ha, just kidding:

Despite the issues with the two wind turbines and their removal taking place, [Zeeland Board of Public Works utilities manager Andrew] Boatright said the city of Zeeland is still committed to renewable energy.

Zeeland has contractual commitments to the state for both solar and wind to make up 12.5 percent of its retail load this year. In 2021 the state mandate goes up to 15 percent.

Some wily investor is going to make a killing by going into dead wind turbine disposal.

On a tip from KirklesWorth.

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