Author: Francesco Miceli

  • Once More, with Feeling: Timber Towers

    Approximately one year ago I wrote a post about a full scale prototype of a wind turbine tower made of wood. It has been built in 2012, but after that the idea seemed to have stalled without progress: one of the companies involved in the construction, TimberTower GmbH, disappeared from the radar shutting down their website and…

  • Printable 3D concrete wind turbine towers

    Yes, you’re reading right – you can print your concrete tower. I have discussed in many previous articles how I see some evidence that we are reaching the maximum size for steel towers, mainly because of transportation issues. For higher towers concrete towers could help solving the problem, as they can be transported in pieces…

  • Dancing in the wind

    I have discussed in other post the phenomenal growth of the dimensions of wind turbines in the last 2 decades. Bigger rotors, taller towers and more MW has been the industry trend year after year. There is some evidence that we are reaching the limit – blades of more than 50m length pose significant logistic challenges, while…

  • Blades repair – how to fix it

    I have discussed in other posts why wind turbines blades are prone to different type of damages and how to detect them. But what happen when a problem is identified? Changing the blade is usually the “last recourse” option: in addition to the cost of the blade itself there are the transportation costs plus the…

  • Where have all the wind turbine gone? Foldable towers

    In previous post some years ago I have described two alternative solution for the wind turbine tower that should help solving the problem of the huge cranes that are currently needed for the erection of the wind turbines components. One is the self-lifting precast tower developed by Esteyco, a Spanish engineering company that developed several…

  • Wind turbine blade damage detection systems

    Wind turbine blades are rarely subject to catastrophic failures, although you can find a bunch of videos on YouTube with blades flying away or falling into pieces. They are however subject to several problems, such as cracks, debonding of the various layers, internal delamination, etc. As an order of magnitude blade failures are accountable for…

  • Taking over – it really matters

    One of most the relevant milestones in the life of a wind farm is the taking over. It happens when the contractual requirements for the wind farm are considered fulfilled by the subcontractor, except for smaller items that are noted in a “punch list” and have to be fixed as soon as possible. The requirements…

  • How good is the wind farm you are working at? Some indicators

    So, how good is the wind farm you are working at? There are several parameters that can be used to assess a renewable energy project and to compare different projects. Among the most used, it is worth mentioning the Capacity Factor, NPV, IRR and LCOE. Capacity Factor is the ratio between the actual energy production…

  • What do you call it? Basic terminology in wind farm construction

    Lately I have found several high quality videos on YouTube with time lapses of wind farms constructions. I have decided to take some screenshots and use them to create a very basic BoP visual dictionary. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. Enjoy! Crane and auxiliary crane lifting a steel tower section: A…

  • Slingers & trenching machines in wind farms: a guest post by Christopher James

    After posting this article on Slingers I have been contacted by Christopher James, an expert on the topic with an exceptional amount of real world experience. He has been so kind to share is knowledge on the theme and I am thankful for that. I am sharing it with you in the very comprehensive post below…