Downwind: Innovations in offshore wind transportation

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Excerpt: Offshore wind development is taking off around the world. The wind projects, however, pose logistic challenges that call for solutions from new ideas. For example, the UK has opened new areas for offshore wind development. However, these locations are farther from shore and in rougher water than …

Wind Innovator 2012: Travis Smith, Senior Member of IEEE

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Excerpt: Travis Smith didn’t start out in the wind energy sector. But with more than 20 years of experience as an engineer and consultant, he has since become the “wind guy” in a small, often-overlooked community— the protection engineers who ensure the stability of the electrical grid. Now a staff e …

Lighter materials hold key to efficient transportation

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Excerpt: Transportation will choose emerging structural materials to save fuel, as energy use rises 53% from 2008 levels to 765 quadrillion BTUs in 2035, says Lux Research. While carbon fiber and nanomaterials tend to gain all the hype, other advanced structural materials such as magnesium and advanced high …

Lifting 370 ton in 10 minutes

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Excerpt: A recent hydraulic lifting yoke from Danish company Fyns Kran Udstyr (FKU) has been tested in the world’s largest offshore wind farm, London Array. The company says the yoke makes handing offshore turbine foundations faster, cheaper and more secure. Typically, it can take up to an hour to p …

Logistics 101

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Excerpt: The growth in the size of wind turbines and their components have negatively affected America’s transportation industry. The wind industry has pushed high-load permits to high numbers. Four to five truck loads are needed for each turbine. By one count in 2009, 22,000 truck loads were needed to shi …

What to consider in a contract

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Excerpt: OEMs, such as Suzlon, have a contracts department to handle their many details. “You want to form relationships with carriers,” says the company’s Logistics Director Gary Kowaleski. One route to a good relationship is with a contract that leaves little to no interpretation. He suggests at …

When is a barge faster than a truck?

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Excerpt: Not long ago, transport company ATS International (ATSI) was contracted to ship 100 complete wind turbines. Nacelles and hubs came from Germany, towers were made in Korea, and blades were transported from a fabrication facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. The units were allocated to multiple projects …

Two cranes are better than one

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Excerpt: The Port of Vancouver, Washington boasts two of the largest harbor cranes in North America. Each has a 140-metric ton capacity. The size allows reaching across a wide ship to unload heavy cargo. A 100-ton crane could have trouble unloading a Panamax-sized (wide) vessel because it cannot reach ac …

Challenges in moving huge and heavy components

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Excerpt: In an ideal world, logistics directors would schedule a train to deliver tower sections, nacelles, and blades to a storage area within a few miles of their wind farm. Trucks would complete the delivery. But the ideal quickly runs off the rails because a few rail tunnels are too narrow for nacelles, …

Custom-fit covers for wind-power equipment

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Excerpt: Custom fit covers are an alternative to heavy, expensive custom tarps or conventional hand wrapping for various wind-power applications. Transhield covers are made from Shrinkable Fabric and consist of three layers: an outer layer that is UV-resistant and anti-condensation, a middle adhesive lay …