Where turbines wind up to get their second wind

Plymouth company refurbishes equipment for smaller projects

Aeronautica Windpower cofounder Brian Kuhn examines old turbine blades at the company's Plymouth yard. (Tom Herde/Globe Staff)

A start-up company in Plymouth is giving aging turbines a second wind.

As established wind farms in California and other locations across the country begin to replace their decades-old machines with newer and larger models, Aeronautica Windpower is refurbishing some of the decommissioned turbines for use in small projects planned to generate electricity for schools, communities, small businesses, and farms.

Reusing aging turbines could help modest-size wind projects, which often can't get equipment in a timely manner because manufacturers make large product orders a priority.

"There's a definite market for it," said Jim Johnson, a senior engineer at the Colorado-based National Wind Technology Center, which is run by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Johnson said he has heard of refurbished machines being used in Asia and Mexico, as well as in the United States, where small groups of farmers and ranchers sometimes band together to operate a turbine as a way to save on energy costs.

In Plymouth, three turbines are now being examined, repaired, and updated; dozens more are under contract to be shipped to Massachusetts, according to Aeronautica.

"We tear the whole machine apart," said Brian D. Kuhn, the company's cofounder and vice president of marketing. "It's really the inner guts: Do we have to replace the bearing? What about the generator? Gear boxes are always a problem."

Kuhn said he and his partners decided to start Aeronautica after realizing other companies were primarily producing equipment suitable for large wind projects.

"The nice thing about this midscale market that we are concentrating on is these are not huge machines," said Kuhn, who hopes his company will be able to supply turbines to power schools, homes, or even supermarkets. Already, he says, several people with local projects in the works have called seeking equipment.

Kuhn said his company already has sold two of the three turbines, which came from a wind farm in Tehachapi, Calif., that are currently being retrofitted. One is headed to a Texas ranch, the other to a farm in New York.

"The guy in Texas wants to use it for irrigation," Kuhn said. "It's going to be replacing some diesel generators for his pumps."

It takes about two months to refurbish the machines, which typically can produce between 65 and 108 kilowatts and cost $79,000 to $129,000. That's significantly less time than it takes to get a new machine.

"The supply chain of new machines, as you know, has got such a backlog in it, so getting these things is a matter of six months to two years," Kuhn said. "And we said, well, here are some machines that can go out right away. Why let it go to waste?"

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth.com.