Red Hill Breezy 5.5 Wind Turbine turned one year old on July 1st

Hard to believe that it has already been a year since we installed the Breezy 5.5 Wind Turbine on the cattle farm of Gary Horton. This past year has definitely been filled with trials and achievements regarding the Breezy.

Carroll County Residents watch as the locally built Red Hill Breezy 5.5 KW Wind Turbine lifts to the sky in Summer 2010.

In honor of the Breezy’s first birthday we are trying out some new nine foot blades in replacement of the ten foot originals. We believe that the shorter blades will increase efficiency and provide more power.

When the Breezy made it's debut last summer, it was a great celebration that we hope our community will not forget anytime soon. Together with over 50 excited members of the surrounding community we turned Gary Horton's Fancy Gap farm into a great American celebration of energy independence. To celebrate we had galvanized tubs filled with old fashioned glass bottle sodas and ice; we hung balloons, streamers, and more than one cowbell, in a red, white, and blue fashion along the farm’s fence. We wanted this event to be something remembered. 

We had many people stop by our store in Hillsville, VA this past winter asking what had happened to the 10ft blades on the Breezy. You might remember our Facebook post:

Sometime before 9 am on Saturday morning Feb. 19 the main shaft on the wind turbine broke sending the blades to the ground. It was really cranking out the power. The shaft is two inch solid steel shaft t...hat connects to the blades and then the shaft is reduced to one and one half inches connecting to the motor. The point where the shaft is reduced is where the failure occurred. Sunday the turbine was pulled down to repair the problem. We have been wanting to test 9 foot blades instead of the 10 foot. The 9 foot would allow the same tip speed ratio (TSR) as the 10 ft but in less wind. We think this would be a good time to give them a test run.

So now the 9 ft blades are up and we are hoping that they do as well as we are expecting.