Ishpeming Prototype Wind Turbine

A prototype vertical axis wind turbine, 162 feet tall with 110 foot blades, rises above the Pioneer Bluff Apartments in the Upper Peninsula city of Ishpeming, and it was promised that the turbine would generate cheap electricity for the complex no matter the wind direction and speed. However, it has yet to generate a single watt.

An alternative design for new turbines, proponents of vertical axis wind turbines promise an advantage over the conventional windmill type turbines. They could generate power with wind from any direction and speed, unlike windmills which have to use wind from one direction over a certain threshold. A prototype vertical axis turbine, the Windstor Dermond, was constructed for the Pioneer Bluff Apartments in Ishpeming in 2010. Looming 162 feet in the air, the prototype is visible from US Route 41. However, the promises of cheap power for the apartments never materialized, as the turbine has yet to even be turned on due to design flaws and liability issues.

The turbine is planned on being replaced with a smaller, more modern design, but until then, the prototype still stande above Ishpeming, with the winds flowing by it without one turn of its blades.