Blue Creek Wind Farm, the first large-scale wind facility in Ohio and one of the biggest east of the Mississippi River, relied on Lafarge cement for turbines’ concrete foundations and soil stabilization.
Lafarge provided Type I portland cement from its Paulding plant to Irving Concrete of Ohio, which built a portable ready-mix batch plant to produce about 122,500 cubic yards of concrete for the project.
Cement supplied by Lafarge North America played a key role in the construction earlier this year of the Blue Creek Wind Farm in Ohio, which is owned and operated by Iberdrola Renewables. One of the largest wind power plants in the world with 152 Gamesa G90 turbines, the facility has a generating capacity of 304 MW.
Lafarge provided Type I portland cement from its Paulding plant to Irving Concrete of Ohio, which built a portable ready-mix batch plant to produce about 122,500 yd3 of concrete for the project. The construction of 15 to 20-foot-deep concrete foundations to support all of the 328-foot-high towers with 2-MW turbines required 30,000 tons of cement. On average, each of these below-ground support systems used 60 truckloads of concrete (750 yd3), which was poured in two steps. A 2-ft. thick mud matte was poured first to create a solid base and then an upper pedestal where the tower connects was poured in step two. The huge bolts that fasten to the tower were embedded into the upper section of the concrete. Quality testing was conducted at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days to ensure a solid cure.
Lafarge also supplied 20,000 tons of Type I cement for soil stabilization of about 44 miles of roads, which allowed access to the site under difficult soil conditions and provided a base for permanent roadways. Because the rural roads were not designed to handle the heavy construction traffic loads, they were ground down, mixed with 5% cement at a 12-inch treatment depth, and then allowed to harden before being surfaced with asphalt. This made for a stable base that was engineered to handle the heavy truckloads of concrete and other construction equipment needed to build the wind turbines. “The rebuilt roadways will require a lot less maintenance in the future due to their stronger and more durable base underneath,” said Tom Rapp, Major Market Manager at Lafarge. “In what is largely corn and soybean country, the improved long-lasting roadways are in much better shape now for trucks carrying these agricultural products.”
Relative to the rest of Ohio’s power generation fleet, the Blue Creek Wind Farm offsets carbon dioxide emissions by about 1.6 billion lb/year, which is equivalent to planting an estimated 138,000 acres of trees.
Lafarge North America Inc.
www.lafarge-na.com
Filed Under: Construction, News
Wind and Solar are great alternatives to fossil fuel sourced energy alternatives. The former erected in the Saraha could provide five time the entire world demand, while the latter at planned rates of installation could provide 14 times the entire world’s demand. However, there are better alternatives: Nuclear Fusion, Blue Energy, Geothermal, Gravity Energy Storage and Battery.
There is a mistake in the numbers regarding the base of the turbine. It says the base is 30,000 tonnes and required 60 truck loads of cement. That would make each truck load 500 tonnes.
My understanding is that a 1-2MW turbine base requires a base of about 18m round x2 m deep. That equates to a volume of 177 cubic metres at a weight of 2400kg per cubic metre or 425 tonnes.
What they also don’t say is how much carbon is produced, to mill,mix,truck,pour all the concrete. Also not mentioned is how these hole where dug. Also how much rebar and steel support material was used and how much carbon was created to produce,truck and install steel product. So I would bet that in the lifetime of one of these power turbines they will never be carbon neutral. Never mind how do we recycle them when no longer in service
The math in this article doesn’t make sense. It says 30,000 tons of concrete needed, which requires 60 truckloads. A quick google search says that a concrete truck can carry 20 tons. 30,000 tons would require 1,500 concrete truck loads, not 60.
IMHO… I think everyone is ignoring a few very foundational (pun intended…) factors around wind energy. The energy and resources needed to engineer, manufacture, transport, build, connect and maintain a single 2MW turbine are astounding! By resources, ignore financial costs and human resources because that is astounding as well, but just to combat the term “green”, we cannot ignore the fact that there is a massive environmental impact in creating 30,000 tons of concrete… Just because these devices do not use fossil fuel to create energy does not mean they are “green”. It will take nearly 500 2mw turbines to replace 1 of our 400+ 1Gw nuclear power plants in the world. This is only an estimate, but that’s 150,000,000 TONS of cement….
This is a quote from a google search:
On average, to produce one ton of cement, 3.4 GJ of thermal energy (in dry process) and 110 kWh of electrical energy are needed [4,5]. Furthermore, manufacturing a ton of cement releases 0.73–0.99 tons of CO2 [6] which primarily depends on the clinker-to-cement ratio and other factors.
These numbers are astonishing. Let’s not even mention the Steel and other resources needed, this is JUST to pour a SINGLE foundation for one of these things. Calling it “Green” is intentionally misleading.
We CANNOT consider these the “Future” of energy or how we will solve some environmental crisis.
Very interesting topic’s, have been following the wind energy for quite some time. Our little big company is interested in working with the wind energy people. We are a small independent company located in Wisconsin, our expertise is in green technology we market resins that have bee proven and certified Polyesters Vinyl Ester epoxies etc. that have less than one percent voc’s and haps. These materials can be used in manufacturing the wind blades in certain composites.
I know we could be of great assistance to the wind energy company’s and would like to work with a company that would be interested in replacing concrete. SCP is a product that is not only green but has a life expectancy of well over three hundred years, YES! I said 300 year and has been tested and proven. Just think what it would do to complete the story of green technology used to replace concrete which is not green technology as we all know. Our product is highly chemical resistant and will not absorb water. We often hear about green technology that really isn’t green, but is a he’ll of a story that sometimes pulls the wool over the publics eyes and ears, its not right but we all know it is being done daily.
Oh! forgot the most important part, testing show’s that we are 2.5 to 3 times stronger inch per inch compared to our competitors so what more could you ask for, if you or a friend has an interest in what this product is please feel free to contact me and I will be kind enough to send you specs and photo’s and a power point.
IF we are going to brag about something let’s all do it the right way, as best as possible including the truth.
I think that wind power is the future. It needs to be taken advantage of. We need to clean up the environment as much as possible. This is a great way to help with that. Solar panels are another great option. There is a lot of talk about wind mills and solar in Posey County In. Where I live right now. I think that it is a good thing, lots of people don’t and some people doesn’t think that it works. It does work. Change is hard for some people. We need to move forward. It is the future.