Blade production manager

By MARK STORY

Mark Ward, 47, Twin Turbines Ltd, Penrose

Disillusion with the rapidly downsizing aviation industry spurred this former South African Airways aircraft technician to look for alternative ways of using his experience.

Shortly after arriving from Cape Town, Ward hooked up with two fellow ex-pat South Africans in a wind-turbine start-up.

Because aircraft propellers and wind turbine blades have strikingly similar wind characteristics, the company's co-owners needed a production manager with aeronautical experience.

With a long-standing passion for alternative energies, Ward jumped at the prospect of being the country's only maker of fibreglass wind blades.

As an independent electricity source, Ward says wind turbines have the potential to revolutionise power supply in remote locations such as the Pacific Islands, where the only power source - high-maintenance diesel generators - can shut down for up to 12 hours a day.

"Designed especially to drive wind turbines that charge a battery bank, it's important these 5m-long blades perform in all wind conditions," says Ward.

"Because these blades can rotate close to a car engine's revs-per-minute, the two blades per turbine must be hand made, then moulded together without any flaws. Thats why one blade-set can take up to a month to make," says Ward.

The company installed its first wind turbine in the Cook Islands earlier this year and several other Pacific Island installations in the pipeline should keep the company busy for some time.

"At $10 an hour, I'm not making my fortune here," says Ward. "But over the long term, I'd like to help establish an alternative energies exhibition park where businesses can see the broader commercial applications."