Installation details on a 36-turbine Wisconsin wind farm

According to AWEA,. Q1 2011 alone saw 1,100 MW of new wind-power capacity installed with another 5,600 MW under construction. The Butler Ridge Wind Farm in Mayville, Wis., is adding to these figures. Built on the Niagara escarpment, a ridge that originates in Ontario, Canada, and continues through Wisconsin, the wind farm is comprised of 36, 1.5-MW wind turbines on 80-m towers and a site that measures some five by two miles.

“For maximum wind power, the owners constructed the turbines along a place on the ridge that reaches an elevation of about 1,200 ft,” says Rich Vander Heiden, project manager for Menasha, Wis.-based Faith Technologies. The electrical and specialty systems contractor performed the project’s in-tower wiring and installed the turbine foundation conduits and turbine ground grid.

Foundation conduits and grounding for the project consisted of installing two ground rings with 600 MCM copper, 5-in. power conduits, and 2-in. PVC communication conduits for each tower site, says Vander Heiden.

Foundations were a two-part installation. They included an upper and a lower concrete mat, with requirements for conduits and grounding. While one lower mat was being completed, an upper mat was being poured at another site. Once the routine was established, crews worked out a system so material was sorted out for the next day’s activity.

Project challenges include ground rods that had to be driven 20-ft down. Also, two areas required drilling and blasting to excavate rock to reach a required depth.

“In-tower wiring presented another challenge because it was something Faith Technologies had not previously encountered,” says Vander Heiden. “Worker safety is paramount in our planning. Because of Faith Technologies’ experience with cell towers, we have an in-house instructor on high-tower rescue who certified each climber prior to working on the project. Each day, our safety harnesses and tooling were thoroughly inspected before any climbing,” says Vander Heiden.

The project’s final leg took place once the general contractor assembled the tower sections. At that time, several six-man crews from Faith Technologies lowered power and control cabling from the top section to the down-tower assembly. The company finished its part of the Butler Ridge Wind Farm project on time and without a safety incident.

Faith Technologies
www.faithtechnologies.com

Better blade lets 1.5-MW turbines deliver 5% more power

LM Wind Power’s LM 42.1 GloBlade 1 will extend the life cycle of the 1.5-MW segment by offering a design that provides annual energy production and requires no mechanical upgrading of the current platform. The blade is a way of meeting expectations for high performing rotors. By using its know-how in aerodynamics and structural design, the company developed a more cost effective blade for the 1.5-MW segment, ensuring the end user up to 5% more power generation from an existing platform.

“The market trend has been to move up in the MW range, however this presents many technical challenges and the need for customers to develop and invest in new equipment. The current 1.5-MW industry standard blades are 34, 37.5, and 40.3-m long with only the latter sold in any real volume now. This underlines the end user requirement to generate more power from an existing platform, and there are many manufacturers who offer these products. This lets OEMs sell a tested designs that offers higher electricity revenues,” says Ian Telford, VP Sales & Marketing.

Manufacturability was a key design requirement. This means that the GloBlade can be produced in most LM factories. “We expect the new blade will gradually replace the existing 37.3 and 40.3m blades. A next step is to extend the concept to create several platforms also fitting larger wind turbine types. The blade will be in full-scale production in China and North America in 2010 and in other regions in 2011 depending on demand,” says Telford. The company says that based on its projections, more than 50% of its blade sales in 2012 will be from products it does not currently sell.

The first GloBlade will be spinning on turbines in the second quarter of 2010. In China and America, about two out of three turbines installed are within this segment.