ONSHORE WIND POWER Ӏ ENERGY
A GOLDHOFER FTV 870 TRAILER MOVES A 77M BLADE IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES
In mid-2023, Peruvian heavy haulage specialist Transportes Acoinsa S.A.C. transported wind turbine components for the Wayra II wind farm in the Ica region. Two Goldhofer FTV 850s were used to transport the 77-metre rotor blades for 31 wind turbines to their destination, making a total of 93 blades. To transport the blades Acoinsa opted used two Goldhofer FTV 850s mounted on 12-axle Goldhofer THP/SL modules. The 129 km route from the port to the Wayra II wind farm was demanding and involved narrow passages, built-up areas, power lines,
roundabouts, trees and hairpin bends. These obstacles meant that the rotor blades were raised for 50% of the journey, with the FTV 850 offering a lift angle of up to 60°
So taller towers and longer
blades are the future – and, indeed, the present – of wind power. Which means that building the ever-taller towers, transporting the ever- longer blades from their factory to that tower, and lifting those blades to ever-greater heights to attach them to their turbine, become ever more of a problem. Transport experts and lifting
experts are working on it and finding solutions. These solutions range from standard machinery built bigger, via engineering masterpieces of design, to flights of imaginative ingenuity or even fancy. Onshore problems are very
different from offshore; and the solutions are very different also.
Here we shall consider land-based wind farms and cover offshore wind in its own dedicated feature later in this issue (see page 30 For land-based construction some crane companies are investing in very large crawler machines for lifting, as the example of Verschoor (see box p20) illustrates. Others are going for rough terrain cranes, such as the Terex TRT35 at work in South Africa (see box on p25). But on-site erection of components is only one challenge: getting those components to an onshore site is another. Collett’s experience in Ireland – see box on p26 – is an example of the effort and ingenuity required for today’s sites and scales.
Goldhofer’s
innovative RA 2-110 tower transporter
CONVOI EXCEPTIONNEL Specialist equipment is being designed for carrying blades – and since current blades can be 70 metres long the equipment needs to be exceptional to say the least. The blade lifter design is an example. It holds the blade at
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