Agreed - the turbines had plenty of teething problems - and the jury is still out, whether they are by now fully understood and sorted, though there are some positive indications related to the first part .. as well that they are working through the resolution.
Otherwise - I think the question should be: Why didn't Vector run this wind farm in a much ore efficient way? If you look at it - two out of the five board positions are filled with Vector directors (Simon MacKenzie and Michael Stiassny) and Chris Saddler (the CEO) comes out of the same stable (ex-Vector man).
There are obviously plenty of things which could be improved, but just for starters ..
Integrating NWF into Vector (without changing anything else) would save the separate listing costs (roughly one million according to a recent chat I had with one of the board members). This alone would make the company profitable.
Re-organising NWF alone (by reducing the bureaucratic management overhead) could probably save some 300 to 400k and make it profitable.
Turbines are still operating below the designed power output. Increase the power output by just 10 percent (quite conservative and still ways below the designed power output - 30% should be possible) and the wind farm is profitable;
Come to a peaceful agreement with city council and neighbors and save (roughly) 500k pa in lawyer and court cost - and hey, the wind farm would be profitable.
Not to mention the (probably not just in hindsight) crazy lease agreement for the line equipment - paying basically more than 10% for another 15 years or so ...
Obviously - there are other things which could be improved as well - but just tackling one of the issues above would turn this company from a money drain into a cash cow.
Not sure, what Vectors strategy is - and speculating on it might bring me into dangerous waters ... Do your own speculation!
So many things to do ... and it appears the current (de facto Vector dominated) board decided to wait instead for more wind and higher electricity prices ... maybe not the best strategy ...