Date: 6 June 2017

To: Mr. Judge McJudgeFace

From: Joseph Shin, Engineer For the Boreas Corporation
Subject: Regarding Boreas vs. Windward Solutions

Introduction

This report contains an account of the failure of the wind turbine provided to the Boreas
Corporation by the Windward Solutions Corporation. It is abundantly clear that the wind turbine
manufactured by the Windward Solutions Corporation contained many faults that led to an
unavoidable failure. In this report I will begin with a background of the relationship between the
Boreas Corporation and the Windward Solutions Corporation, observations leading up to the
failure of the wind turbine, data and findings from the failure, and the resulting conclusions.

Background

The Boreas Corporation began its partnership with Windward Solutions in 2013. The
relationship began with a contract that expressed Boreas vision for a future of clean energy. The
vision included a power system that utilized natural phenomenon such as high-speed wind that
would generate and store electricity without burning coal. The contract was made with the
following technical conditions:

The Windward Solutions Corporation will provide a 2-megawatt horizontal axis wind
turbine to The Boreas Corporation.
The Boreas Corporation will pay an amount of $1,000,000 USD to The Windward
Solutions Corporation as a down payment.
The Windward Solutions Corporation must deliver the product within three (3) years of
the initial down payment.
Upon delivery of the product, the Boreas Corporation will pay the remaining $2,000,000
USD to the Windward Solutions Corporation.
The Windward Solutions Corporation must deliver a mechanically sound product with a
failure rate of at least ten (10) years.
If the delivered product does not meet mechanically sound product standards, the
Windward Solutions Corporation is responsible for reimbursing the down payment and
any additional losses incurred.

The contract was signed and documented on January 1st, 2014. As you will soon see, the
Windward Solutions Corporation did not end up delivering a mechanically sound product and is
therefore responsible for the significant financial loss faced by the Boreas Corporation.

Observations

As agreed upon, the wind turbine was delivered to the Boreas Corporation on January 1st, 2017.
This marked the beginning of the conflict with the Windward Solutions Corporation. Upon the
delivery of wind turbine, the Boreas Corporation was given two documents, one detailing the
technical aspects of the turbine and the other detailing the required maintenance for the turbine.
The maintenance document provided a schedule that included a weekly lubrication of the motor,
a monthly inspection of the electrical box, and a daily testing of the gear systems. As you can
see, the Boreas Corporation vigilantly followed the maintenance schedule until the failure of the
turbine as documented in the table below.

Weekly Inspection Date Condition Supervisor Check Off (Y/N)

January 7th Good Yes
January 14th Good Yes
January 21st Good Yes
January 28th Good Yes
February 4th Good Yes
February 11th Good Yes
February 18th Good Yes
February 25th Good Yes
March 1st Failure N/A
Figure 1: A table of the weekly maintenance inspection conditions and check-offs [1].

The technical document described the construction of the wind turbine itself. It contained many
circuit diagrams that were electrically sound in theory. It had aspects of every component of the
wind turbine, and various schematics of the safety mechanisms in place. This document became
especially important when the catastrophic failure of the wind turbine occurred just two months
after its installation, on March 1st, 2017.

There were many signs leading up to the failure of wind turbine that indicated a faulty
construction. A report from an assigned maintenance worker noted that the output of the wind
turbine had steadily declined from the promised 2 megawatts to 1.82 megawatts. Various coil
whines and sounds were observed leading up to the failure. However, the Boreas Corporation did
not take immediate action as it operated under the assumption that these were not problems
inherent with the wind turbine itself, but rather operational problems from the Boreas
Corporation.

Data and Findings

Upon the failure of the wind turbine, the Boreas Corporation had engineers tear down and
inspect the electrical equipment provided. This is when it became abundantly clear that the
Windward Solutions Corporation did not satisfy its end of the contract that promised a
mechanically sound product. The electrical equipment revealed that many circuit diagrams
present in the technical document were entirely absent from the wind turbine itself. The main
point of failure, the gear safety mechanism, is presented in great detail in the technical document.
But when the engineers tore down that exact same component in the delivered wind turbine, it
lacked almost all of the protective circuit elements. This is shown in the figure below.

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 Figure 2: A comparison of presented gear safety circuitry and received gear safety circuitry [2].

There are many instances of a mismatch between the delivered wind turbine and the presented
technical document. The following table notes the most prominent mismatches and the resulting
failures from the discrepancies.

Presented Part Mismatch Status Status

Gear Safety Mismatch Missing Entirely FAILED
Gear Motor Mechanism Partially Present FAILED
Electrical Box Protection Missing Entirely NOT FAILED
Motor Lubrication System Minimally Present FAILED
Battery Surge Protection Partially Present NOT FAILED
Figure 3: A table of the presented part mismatches with the received parts, and their current statuses [1].

Conclusions

In conclusion, it is glaringly apparent that the Windward Solutions Corporation not only broke
the terms of the contract signed, but delivered the Boreas Corporation a faulty product that was
not only dangerous but resulted in heavy financial losses. The findings from the engineers
without a doubt confirm the fact that the wind turbine lacked many necessary components to be
reliable in the long term. It is clear that the Windward Solutions Corporation is at fault for the
failure of the delivered wind turbine, and therefore responsible for the financial failures the
Boreas Corporation has faced under the assumption of a functional product.

Information Sources
[1] The Boreas Corporation Records.

[2] Joseph Shin.

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Part 2

Graphic 1

Wind Farm Output Time Table

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Graphic 2

Fair Comparison Rationale

In order to insure a fair comparison, I decided to plot the ratios of efficiency. So I essentially
summed up the total output of each farm then divided it by each farms theoretical output (which
was the rated output multiplied by 24 hours).