By Healthcare Facilities Today

A wind energy project designed to yield savings on utility bills at St. Cloud’s Veterans Administration Health Care System has instead produced only complaints, according to an article on the Bring Me the News website.

The turbine has been sitting broken since August 2012 due to a series of mechanical problems. No repairs are scheduled for the 245-foot-tall turbine, which was built for $2.3 million, according to a report on Watchdog.org.

The St. Cloud Times reported that the turbine has become “a towering boondoggle.” Construction was finished in April 2011 with the expectation that the turbine would generate about 15 percent of the electricity used at the hospital.

While the VA has paid 99 percent of the cost of installing it, the turbine is not saving them any money, according to the Times.

Read the article.