Walbridge Equipment Installation (now Walbridge Industrial Process) installed four 5.0-kilowatt vertical-axis turbines for Bright Idea Energy Solutions, which was hired by the City of Chicago to design and build a low-cost, low-power mini wind farm as a back-up power plan for its 7th and 10th ward offices and maintenance facilities.
Each Helical Savonius turbine blade assembly consisted of a 14.5-foot-tall rotor blade that is 85 inches wide and weighs 3,500 pounds. The turbines were mounted atop 40-foot-tall precast concrete poles set into eight-foot-deep socket foundations. Walbridge received, inventoried and warehoused all components until the job site was ready to receive them; then the team quickly hauled to the site and erected the poles and turbines.