The engineers were on site on today and have identified the part required. We don’t yet know when the replacement will arrive, but may have it within a week.

In October 2014 Moya turned 25 years of age. Over her life she has watched the community grow along with our use of electricity at the Park. It’s time to celebrate this community elder!

When John Talbott oversaw her arrival in 1989, she stood on her own, capable of delivering up to 75kW of electricity to the community. There were times when this was enough to generate a small export, but by 2006 this no longer happened. The constant demand from fridges, freezers, the Living Machine, computer servers, etc and the many appliances on ‘standby’ had grown to more than 75kW. It was then that Moya was joined by her three big (though younger) sisters.

Together, the four wind mills are able to generate up to 750kW when the winds are strong enough. They produced 15% more electricity than the Park consumed in the year to the end of Oct 2014.

At 25 years of age, Moya has been part of the Findhorn community longer than most of the human residents. As with an ageing car, costly repairs are becoming more frequent. For a wind turbine 25 is quite a ripe age. Moya stands on land owned by our neighbours at Cullerne Farm.

After 25 years the lease arrangement for the site expired and we have recently signed a new agreement. FWP had hoped to be able to replace Moya with a new turbine of larger capacity, however this is not commercially viable at present. The owners of Cullerne Farm are also disappointed that this is not possible and want to be able to explore the possibility of using the site for a turbine of their own.

For this reason, the new lease on the site has a three month notice period. The result is that we are rather uncertain just how long Moya will remain with us. As with an old car, for some time now, FWP has had to carefully look at the cost of significant repairs needed. Now we also have to consider that Moya may have to make way for the ‘next generation’ on her site.

So while she is still with us, let’s appreciate the presence of this elder in our community. Give thanks for her and the visionaries in NFD that worked to bring her here over 25 years ago.