The turbine is stationed at the Martha’s Vineyard airport, in a field adjacent to a runway. The  site has provided an environment full of salt air, rain and snow. It’s even been adequate for putting the turbine through hurricane-force winds (the group once backed up a two-engine Saab turbo-prop to the turbine — no problems to report). The shaft bearings come from NSK, which has simulated 1,000 hours of hurricane-force load. The bearings are expected to last 20 years, says Razvan Panati, director of new technologies at Siemens Industry (pictured).