MAKING THE ENERGY TRANSITION HAPPEN FASTER

Although some improvements have been made to the height and loads at which cranes can operate, the fundamental method of using crawler cranes and truck-mounted cranes has not changed for decades. 

There’s some irony here because the development of turbines as a viable way to capture wind power took far less time. In 1888 the American engineer Charles Brush created a small, automatically operated turbine to power his home. From 1896 until 1902, the Danish scientist and industry pioneer Poul la Cour developed his prototype system into a working source of power for the village of Askov which stood until 1958. 

Today, the industry still strives for the same objective as la Cour – generating the maximum amount of energy from each and every asset. More energy from wind not only means we move closer to a zero-carbon future, but as turbines grow in size and output this also allows us to use fewer resources in their manufacture, installation, and maintenance – bringing down the cost of production. 

While we have now settled on an optimal number of blades; pioneering work is continuing in how greater sizes of blade length and hub height can be achieved in order to increase output. This has led to expectations that onshore power generation will grow from an average of 2.8 MW per turbine in 2018 to as high as 5 MW by 2025.

Building better

Despite this progress, there has been little innovation in how turbine components are installed - and as they grow ever higher, the limits of conventional equipment will soon be reached both for assembly and maintenance. New solutions are required to ensure lifting technology does not become a bottleneck for the expansion of wind power.

Additionally, there are notable reductions to project schedules that could be made if new methods of handling and installing components could be found. Speeding up these elements whilst enhancing safety and accuracy would mean that assets could be online quicker, contributing to renewable energy levels and paying back the investment made in them sooner. Of course, boosting the construction phase in this way would lower the overall build cost.

We explored the multiple areas of onshore wind projects that could benefit from a fresh approach. As onshore hub heights grow to regularly surpass 165 m, fewer cranes will be able to operate at the required heights to install them. 

Whilst it might be feasible to produce bigger cranes in existing formats - in particular tower cranes - this creates issues of its own, as there will be more parts to get to site, potentially greater groundwork requirements and lower resilience to wind conditions given the resulting profile of the crane. All of which could cause delays that have a large impact on schedule and related costs.

As turbines grow, more prime movers and trailers would be needed to get crane components to site; plus, a larger surface area would need to be prepared to create suitable hardstands at each turbine location for the crane to be erected and operate on. These factors would add significant time and cost to projects.

The answer was to reconsider how cranes supported themselves. The majority of crane components that need to be moved, mobilized , and demobilized between turbines are there only to support the lifting work. They take time and money to handle and increase the weight placed on the ground by lifting equipment and therefore the hardstand required, but do not perform assembly themselves. What if they could somehow be replaced?