- Single point of contact
- Innovative installation
- Reduced project schedule
Argentina is serious about increasing its renewable energy resources, aiming for 20% of its power to come from renewables by 2025. The country has also shown it is willing to invest in new technologies to help meet its energy targets.
As part of this drive, ALE completed the transportation, craneage and electro-mechanical installation (TCI) of 16 wind turbine generators for the Loma Blanca wind farm project. ALE was able to provide the whole wind services TCI package for the operation, providing one point of contact from the receipt of components to power generation.
A total of 176 items needed to be transported the 80km from Almirante Stomi Port in Puerto Madryn to the Loma Blanca wind farm site. ALE transported the components via abnormal load transport, including specialist wind blade trailers.
Once delivered to each wind turbine platform, the components were offloaded. ALE overcame the site’s challenging narrow roads by adapting a crawler crane.
The dirt roads between the wind turbines were only 6m wide in parts, so ALE adapted a crane with the latest SPMT technologies, enabling the crane to be easily moved on the wind farm site. After installation, ALE was able to move the crane in one piece, instead of disassembling its sections for reassembly in the next lift position each time, and therefore significantly reduced the project’s schedule.
ALE used several cranes to lift each item, with the largest being a 69m-long blade and the heaviest a 111t rotor. ALE then performed the full electro-mechanical installation of each wind turbine, with a hub height of 100m.
For the transportation, ALE utilised three-blade trailers, two lowbed trailers and 20 axle lines of SPMT. For the craneage and installation work at the Loma Blanca site, ALE deployed a crawler crane, Manitowoc 18000, as the main installation crane, as well as numerous mobile cranes for pre-installation work, tailing and offloading.
The project benefitted from the combination of experts from ALE’s Wind Services division working alongside ALE’s experienced and knowledgeable Argentina branch.
This was the first time this model of wind turbine had been installed in South America. Once complete, the Loma Blanca wind farm project will have a total of 64 wind turbines providing 200MW of electricity for Argentina’s national grid.
Source: ALE
