Wind energy production is “a work in progress,” says former pork producer and cash cropper Richard Ross, who installed a five-kW, Chinese-made turbine on his Fergus-area farm. No one offers a turnkey operation that “doesn’t have to be babysat,” he asserts. “Some day we are going to be there. We aren’t there yet.”
Before he imported a turbine from China, he spoke to several turbine dealers in Ontario.
They all said that they had sold “a lot” but were unwilling to produce a list of names of customers so that Ross could check and see if they were satisfied. “I was never able to get a name and address of a customer,” he says. “That’s why I bought mine directly from China.”