WIND TURBINE ERECTION
INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
■
DECEMBER 2013
24
of a crane needed to build the biggest
wind turbines requires too many trucks
for transportation and too much time
for erection.
In these particular cases, tower cranes
are a serious contender, as Hans-Martin
Frech, Liebherr Werk-Biberach, explains,
“The space needed for the erection of a
tower crane is only around 40 % of the
space needed for other lifting appliances.
Fewer transport vehicles with lower weights
are also required.”
For this niche market, Liebherr offers,
among others, a new model, the 1000 EC-B
125 Litronic flat-top crane, introduced
in April 2013. “The 1000 EC-B 125 has a
lifting capacity of 125 tonnes in the six-
fall version or 100 tonnes in the four-fall
version,” Frech adds, “It is ideal for short
radii of 31.5 m and 36.5 m and for erecting
hub heights of more than 120 m.”
the Northeastern states of Brazil have the
greatest wind potential in the country. In
the southern part of Brazil, the state of Rio
Grande do Sul also has great potential.”
Following the devastation of the nuclear
accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station, Japan is also experiencing
a boom in the wind turbine industry. A
spokesperson from crane rental company
Uchimiya, explains, “Wind energy has
become increasingly popular in Japan as
a new source of electric power with a less
harmful influence on the environment.
This is true particularly after the nuclear
accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station.
“We have worked on a number of wind
turbine installation projects, such as the
Arita wind farm in Wakayama and Nishime
wind farm in Akita. On these sites our
cranes included the 650 tonne capacity
Kobelco 7650 and the 550 tonne capacity
Tadano AR-5500M all terrain.”
Remote locations
The race for developing increasingly higher
and larger wind turbines seems to be
coupled with the trend of installing wind
farms in ever more remote areas, including
weaker wind regions, up mountains or in
forests. This poses a number of challenges
for those involved in the installation
process. Carsten Bohnenkamp, director
of special application tower cranes at
Potain, explains, “Remote locations make it
difficult or even impossible to transport a
large mobile crane or crawler crane on site.”
As Bohnenkamp points out, this
could be a potential problem, especially if
forecasts of nacelles weighing between 60
tonnes and 100 tonnes by 2018 come true.
The challenge is that the sheer size
The new generation of wind turbines and the trend of installing them in challenging environments
is having an effect on the design of specialized trailers. To adapt to the needs of wind turbine
installation providers, Tii Group has introduced a number of new products for the industry. First is
the Scheuerle rotor blade adapter, which is designed to navigate tight corners or obstacles, such
as trees or buildings. In addition, the rotor blade adapter can change the position of the rotor blade
when on steep hills or narrow winding rows. The adapter has an angle inclination of up to 60
degrees. Maximum rotation angle is 110 degrees and it is fitted with a wind sensor.
“The rotor blade adapter can be mounted and transported on both a pulled platform trailer
combination as well as self propelled modules,” Christopher Rimmele, Tii Group sales, says. “It
has maximum stability due to a hydraulically-operated, sliding counterweight in longitudinal and
horizontal directions depending on the rotor blade position. In addition to this it also has radio
remote control with display of wind speed, transverse gradient, blade position, ballast position.”
Also from Scheuerle is the wind tower bolster for moving turbine tower sections. It can
be mounted on Scheuerle platform trailers, including the InterCombi, InterCombi SPE, SPMT,
Scheuerle-Kamag K25, or on platform trailers from Nicolas.
“The new wind tower bolster has a lifting and slewing function which is moved by radio or
cable-remote control,” a company spokesperson explains. “In tight bends, the bolster moves the
wind tower up to 750 mm in a parallel position upwards or to one side so that one end of the wind
tower segment is lifted up by 15 degrees. In
addition, the wind tower can be turned to the
right or left.”
The wind tower bolster has a maximum
payload of 80 tonnes and can transport tower
sections with a diameter of 2.8 to 5 metres.
KEEPING UP ON SIZE
Uchimiya at
work on the
Arita wind farm
in Wakayama,
Japan
All terrain cranes
have also been a
popular choice on
a wind farm area
of Guangdong,
China, where five
XCMG QAY1200
all terrain cranes
are being used
to lift and install
21 units of 2 MW
wind turbines
Plantspeed in the UK transported a
Repower wind turbine base tower section
from Chepstow to Milford Haven on
Scheuerle platform trailers. The 63 tonne
load was 22 m long and 4.3 m in diameter
