INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
■
DECEMBER 2013
23
North America. Butch Robertson, from
crane rental company Buckner Companies,
told
IC
that this year alone the company has
worked on wind farms in Texas, Nebraska
and Michigan. This, coupled with an
involvement in wind farm maintenance
projects on a number of onshore wind
farms helps paint a healthy picture of the
US wind energy market.
The escalation of activity in the wind
energy sector isn’t restricted to the
USA. In South Africa, UK heavy lift and
transport company, ALE, has installed 78
wind turbines on wind farms along the
Western and Northern Cape. A company
spokesperson explains, “The most recent
project was the Hopefield Wind Energy
Project, Western Cape, South Africa where
37 wind turbines were installed. The
Nobelsfontein Wind Energy Project on the
Northern Cape is another example. Here,
41 wind turbines were installed.”
Brazil has also seen an increase in the
number of wind farms installed in the past
few years. Próxima Engenharia, a wind
energy construction company based in
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, has helped
with this growth. To date the company
has participated in 10 wind farm projects
in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, two
wind farms in Paraíba State and two sites
T
he growth of wind power continues
to provide a major source of work
for cranes. In 2012 alone, more than
8,000 MW of wind power was installed
in the United States, increasing its wind
energy, generating more than 60,000 MW.
The only other country that has surpassed
this figure is China.
To keep up with the pace of demand, the
new generation of wind turbines are giants,
towering over the smaller turbines that
currently dominate wind farms. Although
it was believed that the new generation
of larger, higher capacity turbines would
reduce the number of turbines being
installed on wind farms at any one time,
the reality is quite the opposite.
Rick Mikut, crawler crane manager, All
Erection & Crane Rental Corp, comments,
“We are on just about every wind farm
in North America, either for erection or
maintenance. Through our Canadian
affiliate, All Canada Cranes & Aerials
in Mississauga, we are also working on
a project in Beaupré, Quebec, Canada.
We have seven cranes there to help erect
146 wind turbines in phase one of the
Seigneurie de Beaupré Wind Farm, the
largest Canadian wind power project
currently in development.”
A similar picture is seen elsewhere in
The nature of harvesting wind as an energy source is changing. Turbines are not
only getting taller and larger to accommodate the growing need for energy, but wind
farms are being built in ever more remote areas. LAURA HATTON reports
Harvesting the wind
>
A Terex Superlift 3800 installs Enercon E 01 turbines at the Scharrel
community wind farm at Saterland’s Ostermoor bog in Germany
in Bahia. A further wind farm is currently
being designed for Rio de Janeiro.
Fernando Cesar de Oliveira Furtado,
Próxima Engenharia CEO, says, “We feel
All Erection
and Crane
Rental at work
in Indiana,
USA
WIND TURBINE ERECTION
