Wind turbine ends as scrap
The wind turbine in Gebbies Pass has powered its last electric car.
The remaining vestige of the picturesque and controversial turbine – on the road between Lyttelton harbour and Motukarara – was dismantled recently and is being auctioned for scrap on Trade Me this week.
On Wednesday afternoon, the 28-metre steel tower in three sections had attracted a high bid of just over $1000.
“It would make some very large culvert pipes or maybe a tower for some other job,” said the seller, a scrap dealer.
The turbine itself – the two blades and electricity generation machinery – were sold previously.
The company behind the turbine – Windflow Technology – was put into voluntary liquidation in December 2019 after “revenue opportunities ... failed to materialise”, said liquidator PWC.
The Gebbies Pass two-bladed turbine was developed in New Zealand and was a “world-beating machine”, said chief executive officer Geoff Henderson in 2003.
“The performance of our prototype [in Gebbies Pass] provides strong evidence that we have an answer to the gearbox failures and grid integration issues that are bedevilling the industry,” he said in 2004.
By 2011, Windflow had sold and installed 97 of its turbines at Te Rere Hau wind farm near Palmerston North. Eight were also turning in Scotland, six of them owned by Windflow.
The company was celebrated for helping fight climate change. Former Christchurch mayor Vicki Buck was on the board and the Green Party super fund was an early investor.
But from the beginning, the company was rattled with complaints about noise and performance issues. Noise was raised as an issue before the Gebbies Pass tower was even erected. There was often friction between Te Rere Hau and Windflow.
The owners of Te Rere Hau said last October they wanted to replace the double-bladed Windflow turbines with 30 larger turbines with three blades that would significantly boost output.
PWC said all Windflow employees and creditors had received what they were owed. Since the liquidation, PWC had recovered $1.2 million and paid bills worth $989,000, leaving about $194,000 at December 18 to be divided between shareholders. The bills included liquidators’ remuneration of $337,000, liquidators’ expenses of $30,000 and legal fees of $40,000.