Category: Towers & Foundations

  • RUTE precast modular wind turbine foundation

    Some days ago I have been contacted by Doug Krause, founder of RUTE – a green start up proposing an interesting solution for the wind turbine foundation. Taking inspiration from the technology used in bridge construction RUTE is proposing a system of post-tensioned beams connected to a central hub. Each beam has an anchor system…

  • Wood towers for wind turbines

    I always believed that wood towers for wind turbines were a solution possible only in small, domestic WTGs (somewhere around 10 kW to maybe maximum 100 kW). There are several example available, for instance this product of InnoVentum. Well, I was wrong: I see that some years ago (2012) a Vensys 77 1,5 MW turbine…

  • Long term instrumented monitoring of wind turbine foundations cracks evolution

    Some weeks ago I have discovered that, as I am currently enrolled as a university student (getting “slowly but steady” a second degree in Economics) I have full access to the Elsevier database. This is an enormous amount of information, including all the best scientific papers and technical articles published by industry journals. I am…

  • Readers’ questions: may I use an anchor cage somewhere else?

    I’ve just received this question from a reader. As I believe it’s an interesting topic I’ve decided to answer with a post instead of an email or in the comment section. “I’m custom broker and I have to classify under HS Code an anchor cage. I have consulted to Classification Office of Argentine Customs Service…

  • Peikko rock adaptor foundation

    I’ve been asked by a reader of this website why there are no references to the various technical solutions available for wind turbines on rock. The truth is that I’m not a specialist on this topic. However I’m learning, due to the fact that I’m currently working at several projects in northern Europe where it…

  • BoltShield® anchor bolts rust protector cap

    Some weeks ago I’ve been contacted by a company developing an interesting product – a tailor made protector cap for anchor bolts. I’ve notices that in some wind farms corrosion of the exposed side of the anchor bolt can be a problem. For instance, it’s not unusual to observe this phenomenon in areas with high…

  •  Wind turbine foundations cracks – an update

    I already discussed in another post a frequent problem of with turbines foundation, the appearance of cracks. In general, my impression is that the new foundations with anchor cages are much more reliable that the previous technical solution (the “embedded ring” – the industry standard some years ago). However, every now and then I still…

  • Piled foundation for wind turbines

    I’ve noticed last week that the blog has no post on piled foundation and decided to write a couple of words on the topic on a flight back to Hamburg. Piled foundations is a broad term that include several technical solution aimed at increasing the bearing capacity of the soil when design requirements such as…

  • Nabrawind Technologies self erecting tower

    Some years ago I posted an article about a self-lifting wind turbine tower. The idea was to use using heavy lift strand jacks already available in the market to lift the concrete sections of a wind turbine tower. It’s a project developed by Esteyco, a Spanish engineering company. Well, I just discovered that it’s not…

  • Dynamic loads on wind turbines

    I discussed in another post the relevance of resonance analysis in the design of steel tower for wind turbines and the different technical solutions currently in the market. But what are the loads that could induce resonance in the wind turbine? There are several different type of dynamic loads: Unbalanced rotor. This basically means that…