… that on several occasions over the past years I’ve had to go out to look at some non-functioning wind turbines installed by a company that had its office in Montlucon.
And so today, it was more of the same. A 10Kw wind turbine installed on a mast just about 12 metres high (in order to sneak under the local planning laws but totally ineffective of course) and not functioning at all.
“When you switch it on and the blades turn round, there’s a pile of smoke that comes out of it”
One glance told me everything that I needed to know about it. There’s a water leak in the shed roof that drips right on top of the transformer. The transformer and all of the connections are thoroughly corroded and the corrosion is causing a short circuit. And that’s burnt out the inverter.
Furthermore, the owner has tried to connect up an exterior socket to the system and fractured the bus bar while he was doing it. Loads of other things too, and I could go on for ever … "not with a bayonet through your neck you couldn’t" – ed … about all kinds of things.
But anyway, I’m not getting my hands dirty fixing it.
He’s paid €32,000 for the installation, and he’s been quoted over €10,000 for the repairs from another company. But that’s not ever going to fix his problems – not until he can mount it about 30 metres higher. He told me that when it was working he had 7.5KW out of it, but I’ve heard that before, especially with the measuring equipment provided by the installers.
I had a bad night last night.
A nightmare, in fact that awoke me at 12:40. It concerned a group of women who had been condemned for some crime or other and the penalty was to walk towards a defending army well-dug in in the ruins of some bombed buildings, and the defenders were to hurl rocks at them to stone them to death. But their husbands or partners had to be handcuffed to them as they walked down the road, themselves running the risks of being stoned to death. One woman had no partner so I was chained to her. And the couples parted one by one, until it was our turn to leave the bus. And it was at that point that I awoke, sweating.
It took me ages to go back to sleep, but when I did, I was well away until the alarm went off. never felt a thing.
After breakfast I had a little relax (like I have to do these days) and then I went to tear to bits the load in Caliburn. I needed the printer (that I found) but couldn’t find the paper. In the end, the landlady let me have a few sheets. Then I could print off the letters that I had typed the other day.
For lunch I went down to Donville les Bains and the dunes where I was yesterday. I had a nice relaxing couple of hours lying on the sand in the sun while I ate my butties. It was beautiful there, and quiet too.
The tide was out as well, and consequently all of the oyster beds and whatever they are were clearly visible. A few tractors and trailers were out there harvesting, and presumably passing the produce around.
After all, you mustn’t be selfish with your shellfish.
Returning from my trip out into the wilderness at Hocquigny, I went to Brehal-Plage where we had been on Saturday and reclined amongst the rocks for a while to read my book.
And it was here that I had a sudden thought – I had an urgent letter to post and I had forgotten. Although the Post Office was now closed, luckily, the Super-U at Brehal sold those pre-stamped envelopes so I bought a pack of 10 and I could post my letter.
Mind you, I almost didn’t make it there. Some stupid old woman in a Mercedes pulled out of a side road right in front of me, forcing me to slam on my brakes, and then came to a stop 50 yards further down while she made up her mind which way to go. And so she had a double blast on the horn for good measure.
Tea was a kidney bean and mushroom tomato whatsit, with enough left over for another three nights. I’ll have an early night tonight and hopefully sleep right through without any nightmares to awaken me.
