Knight & Carver YachtCenter, based in San Diego, is set to start manufacturing turbine blades at a newly constructed building. The nonprofit Miner County Community Revitalization took out a loan to build and own it, as part of its mission to bring new industries to the rural county.
Knight & Carver will make conventional turbine blades at first. But earlier this month, it made a single curved blade designed to tap into low-speed winds not captured with current technology.
South Dakota is one of the
windiest places in the nation, yet it trails
neighboring states in developing wind energy.
The new facility is part of an effort to find a
niche in the emerging industry while bringing
technology jobs to rural areas.
Randy Parry, executive director of Miner County
Community Revitalization, said Howard's
small-town attitude can complement high-tech
businesses.
"We consider renewable energy an economic
engine," he said. "We can be on the cutting edge
too if we just get out and help one another."
Knight & Carver's new blade design is the latest
product of that economic engine.
It is curved, which allows it to fit 27.5 meters
of length onto a wind machine that normally uses
a 25-meter blade. That extra length means it
will start cranking out energy at a lower wind
speed.
But the curved blade also solves mechanical
problems.
"Normally, if a blade is longer, it would either
break the machine or break the blade when the
wind got real strong," said Gary Kanaby, manager
of the company's blade division. "The blade is
curved like a scimitar, and when the wind is
strong, it twists the blade so it automatically
sheds some of the load."
Kanaby and his staff gained expertise in
working with fiber from building yachts. He said
the orientation of the fibers in the material
causes the blade to bend in a manner ensuring it
can survive at high wind speeds.
The first blade is now in San Diego, where its
response to stress will be tested using a series
of weights. Another blade will be sent for
fatigue testing at the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
Finally, the company will test three of its
blades on a windmill, at a site to be determined
next spring, Kanaby said.
The technology might eventually be adapted to
the latest wind turbines, which currently use
blades about 35 meters long, or 115 feet, he
said. That could make it economical to build
wind farms at sites with lower wind speeds.
The new blade operation will employ 15 to 20
people at first. It is next to a wind turbine
repair and remanufacturing facility, run by
Energy Maintenance Service, based in Gary.
Howard also has Dakota Beef, an organic,
kosher processing plant with about 40 employees,
Parry said. And it has the 135 or so employees
of PBM, a company that cuts and packages playing
cards and baseball cards.
Reach Ben Shouse at 331-2318.