[RE-wrenches] Whisper turbine parts.

Ross Taylor wind.trainer at gmail.com
Mon Apr 8 12:10:15 PDT 2013


Hi all,

Until Southwest Windpower ceased operations and closed all three offices
about 6 weeks ago, I was their rep here on the list.  My apologies for not
responding to the recent Whisper question earlier.  I've been out of the
country and away from email, focusing on working out new employment for
myself.  That was successful and I'm back in Arizona now.  I'll continue to
participate in the list offering, as always, non-sales-oriented support and
answers.

I read the responses and the information is correct.  Roy's been kept in
the loop and others have picked up info second hand or via dealers.  Let me
give you the status, as I know it - filling in a couple of small gaps:

Over a year ago, Southwest Windpower worked out a manufacturing agreement
with Luminous to produce the Whisper 200 and 500 turbines in India.
 Luminous is a very large and, in India, respected battery and inverter
manufacturer.  They started a small subdivision to produce the turbines and
the Southwest Windpower quality engineers worked hard to guide and improve
the manufacture of the 200 and 500 turbines.  During that time, the
finished products were essentially being re-built in the SWWP factory in
Flagstaff.  Now that SWWP is gone, I cannot speak to the quality of the
Whisper 200 and 500 products.  I do know that the owner of that company is
committed and serious about supporting the products, but there's not yet a
process in place to do that.

Several months ago, Southwest Windpower sold the manufacturing rights for
the Air products to Primus Metals in Colorado.  They started a wind
division and picked up the rights, the production line equipment, and they
also picked up some of the best staff (who'd contemporaneously been laid
off by Southwest Windpower).  The former Air production line manager (John)
and the most experienced tech support guy (Bo) were in that group.  They
also picked up two Kens and some others.  All great people and I'm happy
they are still involved in Air.  I'm not in any way affiliated with Primus,
but I've kept up on what they're doing and I feel really positive about the
future of the Air products.  Primus has clearly made a strong investment in
maintaining the quality and continuity, as much as possible.  I,
personally, wouldn't hesitate to purchase a Primus-made Air turbine.

Southwest Windpower (or the remaining legal entity) still owns the rights
to Skystream and Whisper 100.  There are indeed seizure notices taped to
the doors of the factory here.  And, while supply chain vendors may (or,
do) have parts in their stock, I understand they are not able to legally
sell those to anybody.  Since there's not a Southwest Windpower company to
purchase them from, or to provide that support, owners of products
purchased before the closure (2/20/2013) don't have any real options.
 Primus is only responsible for supporting warranties on the turbines they
sold (rightfully so), but they do have and will sell Air parts.  Skystream
parts are not currently available from any known source, but I am aware of
some former employees who are offering what software or programming support
that they can offer.  If you need Skystream assistance, please contact me
off-list (directly).  I'm not doing this, so this isn't a solicitation of
business for myself.  I'm just trying to make introductions and referrals
that may help owners.

There's not yet been official word or any update on the company web site,
so I can't offer more than this. I see that the Flagstaff location was
removed from the SWWP web site but the Germany and Colorado addresses are
still listed.  This has led to some confusion about whether it was just the
Arizona office which was closed. I can assure you that all three offices
were closed and operations were ceased. Like all the remaining employees, I
lost my job on Feb 20th as well.  I know there are still many dealers who
aren't aware of the closure and I get contact (almost daily) from someone
who wonders why nobody's calling them back.  I'll help refer where I can,
but please keep in mind that I'm not affiliated with Southwest Windpower
any longer and that I am not speaking on their behalf.

Best regards and wishes to all of you,

Ross
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