One of Geneseo's two recently installed wind turbines is down temporarily due to what is believed to be a faulty generator. Lewis Opsal, Geneseo electric superintendent, said the turbine should be up and running again by the end of January or early February. He said representatives from Vensys, the German manufacturer of the two 300-foot turbines, was in Geneseo recently to check on a vibration inside the turbine.

A wind turbine blade came crashing to the ground Wednesday, halting energy production at a small-scale wind farm southwest of Wyanet because of what may be a defective design. In all, four turbines on Richard Shertz's property - all part of the AgriWind facility in central Bureau County - have stopped turning after a blade on top of one of the towers broke off about 9:30 a.m. "It was the loudest noise I've ever heard," he said. "I thought it was thunder."

Shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, a rotating blade on a wind turbine at Schertz's farm broke off, plunging to the earth in a cornfield about 150 feet west of the turbine. ...The spokesperson said the investigation into this turbine had just started, but the company was in the middle of a blade retrofit program across the United States to correct an "unfortunate" design issue in the first generation of this blade.