The world’s first mobile production plant for hybrid towers for wind turbines begins now with production in Thailand. The Max Bögl Wind AG is building 90 concrete towers for the Korat Wind Farm using the local workforce, local materials, and German know-how.
Max Bögl Wind AG says it is building 90 concrete towers for the Korat Wind Farm using the local workforce, local materials and German know-how.
The new mobile production plant of Max Bögl Wind AG in Huai Bong has around 200 employees. Most of these are Thai workers, who are working six days a week in three shifts per day. The goal is to produce three hybrid towers a week for the Korat Wind Farm. Hybrid towers allow the economically viable implementation of hub heights of up to 180 meters to provide greater yields and high efficiency, especially in inland locations. In addition to utilizing the local workforce, the Bavarian company is also making the best of regional resources such as concrete and reinforcing steel.
German quality made in Huai Bong
Ralph Dresel, General Project Manager of the Korat Wind Farm project, explains the on-site challenges: “The stringent requirements placed on the product allow no room for error so that experienced personnel and also specially instructed and trained personnel occupy all key positions in the mobile productions.” The company also dealt with the local climate at an early stage: “We took the climatic conditions into consideration in the early planning phase of the mobile prefabrication factory. In addition, measures have been taken in the concrete mixing plant to ensure correct processing of the high-performance concrete used and maintain the permissible fresh concrete temperature,” explains Dresel further.
Innovative and forward-looking project
From the very beginning, the project seemed equally innovative and challenging: In the middle of August 2017, Max Bögl began shipping an entire prefabricated construction plant from Sengenthal to Huai Bong via Nuremberg and Rotterdam. “Great praise is due to all my colleagues in the parent factory and in Thailand who have collaborated on this future-oriented project. This has shown that innovative ideas and a pioneering spirit are important factors in the expansion of renewable energy sources,” states Josef Knitl, the Managing Director of Max Bögl Wind AG, in expression of his satisfaction with the implementation of this project. All towers for the Korat Wind Farm should be finished by the end of this year.
A production process with a future
Max Bögl will continue to use mobile production plants for international projects in the future: A mobile manufacturing plant is built at the wind turbine site itself and used to produce concrete elements with local materials and labor. This creates added value on site, reduces the cost of material purchases and places significantly less strain on infrastructure compared to heavy transports. The high-quality standards for factory manufacturing are maintained in the mobile factory because the equipment and processes from many years of experience in producing concrete segments only needed to be adapted for the new precast concrete sizes. The CNC-machined concrete segments are smaller in the mobile manufacturing plant. Max Bögl has thus found a way to offer its hybrid tower systems throughout the world while maintaining the German high standards of quality.
Filed Under: Towers
