“ Iowa Farm Family Dealing with A Fiery Wind Issue from Turbines Manufactured by Federally Subsidized Plant”, by THOMAS J SHEPSTONE

“So, we have massive subsidies going into a new foreign-owned manufacturing plant that is anything but green, two turbines having self-destructed within 18 months, and, in the process…”

Iowa Farm Family Dealing with A Fiery Wind Issue from Turbines Manufactured by Federally Subsidized Plant

THOMAS J SHEPSTONE

DEC 09, 2024

The Gazette, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, news outlet carried a very upbeat story back in August about a wind energy revival. Here’s a bit of it:

Spurred by federal incentives for renewable energy and predicting growth, a global wind energy company says it will hire “upwards” of 100 employees for its West Branch plant and restart manufacturing in a facility that laid off the last of its assembly workers a decade ago.

Nordex Group will restart production in West Branch in 2025, aiming to begin production of wind turbines in June, according to Jackie Shay, the company’s vice president for people and culture in North America…

The Nordex Group employs more than 10,000 people worldwide and has production facilities in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and India, in addition to the United States. It took over ownership of the West Branch facility when it acquired Acciona Windpower in 2016. But by that time, Acciona had ended production there, laying off the last of its assembly staff in March 2013…

The company will manufacture nacelles, or wind turbine housing, in West Branch for both the current N163 turbine variant and a new product called N169/5.X, which is tailored to the U.S. market.

Shay said Nordex is increasing its manufacturing in the United States because of provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which went into effect Aug. 16, 2022. The act, signed into law by President Joe Biden, aims to increase domestic energy production and manufacturing and reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.

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How’s it going? Well, two months later the Gazette published an unintentional update:

On Aug. 15, Sally Freeman received a call from a neighbor.

“Your wind turbine’s on fire again,” the neighbor said in the 5 a.m. call.

By the time Freeman looked out her window at the family farm near Mechanicsville, most of the turbine blade already had burned.

Her parents, Steve and Teresa Weets, agreed in 2012 to an easement with Acciona Wind Power to install two turbines on the family farm in Cedar County. But within the last 18 months, both turbines have been struck by lightning — and now, one of them twice.

The strikes left fiberglass, dust and other debris strewn over at least 240 acres, almost a third of the farm’s land. And with the fall harvest underway, the family’s frustration with having the damaged turbines removed and the debris cleaned up is threatening their bottom line.

“We're trying to figure out what's going to happen to that corn,” said Freeman, 31. “We don't know if it's going to have to end up in a landfill, or if there is some type of place to go salvage it, or a different market to put it into. I hate to have to haul that much corn to the landfill, especially a year like this year where we're looking at really good yields.”

Freeman said her family repeatedly has requested Acciona use a crane to remove the second tower — rather than explosives to knock it over, due to concerns that explosives will lead to more debris…

But Freeman said Acciona has refused, saying that using a crane isn’t safe…

The scattered debris on the farm has become more embedded in the corn as time goes on, leading to questions on how the harvest will unfold to avoid potential contamination and damage to farm equipment.

“It's interspersed within the cornfield, stuck on top of the corn plants in places,” Freeman said.

Freeman said it is hard to tell where the debris stops, due to how tall the corn is, but estimated “at least” 240 acres have been affected because wind has scattered the debris. Although “the bulk” of the debris is on her parents’ farm, some fiberglass and other materials made it onto a neighbor’s property and into a creek, Freeman said.

She said how they will approach the harvest is being worked out with Acciona. But the current plan is to try to harvest what they can of the affected corn, then use a grain bagger to store it — keeping it separate from the normal grain system to avoid contaminating the other corn and any potential issues that could pop up by putting the contaminated grain through other machinery.

Freeman said Acciona earlier sent a third-party cleanup crew to the farm to assist with removing the debris, but Acciona would not confirm what company is doing the cleanup. Despite the work on the property since early June, Freeman said much of the debris remains.

Freeman said she doesn’t want another landowner to have to endure the frustration and uncertainty the family has gone through.

Here is a video capturing Freeman's concerns:

So, we have massive subsidies going into a new foreign-owned manufacturing plant that is anything but green, two turbines having self-destructed within 18 months, and, in the process, also having contaminated a corn field. This is Joe Biden's Green New Deal in action. Nothing else needs to be said.

#Iowa #Wind #WindTurbines #Fire #WestBranch #Subsidies #Foreign #InflationReductionAct #IRA