Crippled Willmar wind turbines to be scrapped years early

After years of struggling to keep two chronically unreliable wind turbines up and running, Willmar Municipal Utilities finally plans to pull the plug on them, five years sooner than projected upon delivery. After 15 years of on again off again operation, the twin turbines proved too hard to find parts for and too expensive to operate.

Contrary to proponent’s claims that wind-generated power costs less than traditional sources of energy, the power produced by Willmar’s wind turbines since going online turned out to cost almost twice as much as the current rate on the open market.

The utilities board expects to make the shutdown official next month, according to the West Central Tribune.

Willmar Municipal Utilities Facilities and Maintenance Supervisor Kevin Marti opened the presentation by stating, “The DeWind wind turbines were put into service in 2009, with a projected life expectancy of 20 years. The existing mechanical and technological conditions have made repairs to the turbines cost prohibitive; it is no longer fiscally responsible to continue our wind program.”

During the lifespan of Willmar’s wind turbines, the cumulative cost to produce one kilowatt-hour of power was 14.3 cents. Willmar Municipal Utilities currently purchases power for an average of 7.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.

At the conclusion of his presentation on Monday, Marti stated, “Due to lack of resources — including vendors, human and technology — availability of replacement parts, financial considerations and existing projected life expectancy, it is not practical to continue the operation of the wind turbines.”

Neither of the western Minnesota community’s wind turbines currently runs or will likely ever run again before shutting down. The problems sound all too familiar to Willmar area residents, thanks to the transparency and regular updates to the public provided by utility officials.

Wind turbine No. 3 had a blade pitch fault that stopped it from working in April of 2024 and the wind turbine technicians, Matt Krupa and Nick Hillenbrand, discovered that there was structural damage to the Fiberglas nacelle. The nacelle houses all of the generating components in a wind turbine, including the generator, gear box, drivetrain and brake assembly.

The brackets that attach the nacelle to the wind turbine were broken and cracked. “It’s unsafe to be in that turbine because of the brackets, and therefore we have not been able to further diagnose the blade pitch concern,” Marti said.

It’s pretty much the same story with the other hobbled turbine. The manufacturer went out of business several years ago, further complicating necessary maintenance and repairs. To its credit, Willmar held on longer than similar DeWind installations.

All of the Oklahoma DeWind D8.2 turbines were decommissioned several years ago. The ones in Argentina have also been shut down and overhead power brought in to provide power. The one in Texas is now just a shell used for training purposes.

“To my knowledge, there’s one D8.2 on Earth still operating,” Marti said.

Yet even after shutting down, the wind turbines will remain a liability. Willmar Municipal Utilities has budgeted $1 million to pay for decommissioning and recycling the turbines.