Page 52 - North American Clean Energy March April 2018 Issue

indirect costs that frequently follow; bridges and roads may require reinforcement
to allow passage of the trucks carrying the crane, the site itself may need elaborate preparation to provide a level area big enough for the large crane structure, and special permits may need to be obtained.
Turbine height is another cost-in ating factor. Current turbine developments are nearing 10 MW capacity. ese systems require increasingly taller towers, many of which already reach above 150 meters - adding to the headaches facing the corrective maintenance eld.
Finally, availability presents a separate challenge. Until the crane reaches the wind farm and performs the necessary operation, turbine downtime and the resulting loss of production may last for days or weeks, depending on the number of cranes needed and the distance to the site.
With all this in mind, the industry has potential for huge savings on mobilization, installation, and maintenance. If we managed to eliminate the need to use mobile cranes with smarter solutions, it would have a major impact on both the economic and environmental cost of energy, ultimately reducing the bill for the end consumer while sustaining our natural resources.
e outlook for the coming years is intriguing. Public entities across Europe recognize the incentive to secure their position as world leaders in this segment of the industry, and are awarding funding support to companies that prioritize innovation and investment in R&D.
e advance of craneless systems includes:
• In Spain, an engineering company has been recognized as a benchmark in the
construction of concrete tower sections and foundations worldwide. e company has been re ning solutions for self-
elevating tower sections since 2014,
and has received support from the
Eurostars Programme.
• A relative newcomer to the industry
has won several patents, including one for its technology for self-erecting towers based on a lattice structure. e solution promises to save 30 percent of total tower costs, while reducing the assembly time by up to 50 percent, and has won support from the European ERDF fund.
• A Dutch manufacturer of direct- drive wind turbines has developed a climbing crane for installing turbines. e crane scales the turbine, from base to the top, by means of a series of steps installed in each tower section. is setup allows the crane to install the full tower, section by section, climbing upwards in the
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ARE WE, AS AN INDUSTRY, GETTING CLOSER TO
eliminating the need for mobile cranes entirely?
e market for the installation, operation and maintenance
of wind turbines continues to grow globally. In order to keep pace with generation capacity, we need to rethink processes and technologies across the industry.
We’re seeing plenty of developments in the elds of preventive maintenance and small corrections; it’s the areas of installation and major corrections that pose the greatest continuing challenges. In a bid to provide operators with options that have major economic and environmental advantages, more and more companies are brainstorming solutions that aim to remove mobile cranes from the equation altogether.
Anyone in this business will tell you that crane rental fees can be hefty. Less known, yet just as relevant, are the many
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wind power
The Wind Industry
Goes Craneless
by Thomas Lamberth Sandbjerg and Jon Valdivielso García
52
MARCH•APRIL2018 /// www.nacleanenergy.com