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 salinity (e.g. Chile, or near the sea in the Netherlands).

If rusty, the bolt need to be cleaned before being tensioned. In theory this solution could improve the situation.

The solution, called Boltshield, is a metal cover cap available in several materials like aluminium and carbon coated steel (other similar products are made of plastic).

This cap should protect the upper part of the bolt, the nut and the washer from possible damages.

Additionally, coupled with paste or corrosion inhibitor, should prevent corrosion.

It’s a specific product line for the wind energy sector and apparently is already used in wind farms in  several countries (Italy, Finland, Scotland, Lithuania).

They claim that the market response is particularly interesting for the innovative screw-on system that allows an easy and safe screwing on the tie rod.

I didn’t had the opportunity to test this product (and obviously I’m not affiliated or compensated by them) so I can’t assure you that it delivers what promise. If you do have experience please drop me a line.

Liebherr crane configuration codes: what do they actually mean?

Have you ever wondered what is the logic behind the crane configuration codes used by Liebherr?

How could an unintelligible code such as “SL13DFB” being interpreted?

There is a logic behind the letters used – it has to be found in the German roots of the company.

The letters most frequently used in wind farm construction to define crane configurations are:

SL (“Schwer / Leicht”): This code means that the main boom of the crane is made of two different types of sections, “Heavy” (with a standard area) and “Light” (with a somewhat smaller area, used in the last segment of the boom). Between the “heavy” and the “light” sections s transition element is used

D (“Derrick”): The crane has a secondary boom, called “Derrick”.

F (“Feste Gitterspitze”): The crane use a jib (an auxiliary element assembled on the top of the main boom).

W (“Wippare Gitterspitze”): This is a different type of jib (a luffing fly jib). “WV” is the heavy version.

HS (“Hilfspitze”): This is one more jib configuration specifically designed for wind turbine assembly.

B (“Ballast”): The crane use a suspended counterweights system.

Invest in wind energy option #1 – buy wind turbines

This is the first of several post that I’d like to write in the next weeks about investing in wind energy.

There are several possible alternatives to invest in wind energy, or more broadly in renewables: stocks, managed funds, ETFs or even direct investment in the development of a project.

The option described in this post (buy your own turbines) is probably the most extreme but it’s not unseen. I’ve been personally involved in several projects owned not by utilities, mega corporations or professional developers but by private investors or small companies willing to pay out of their balance sheet.

Additionally, it has to be considered that the banks are usually willing to finance a relevant portion of projects. The percentage that can be financed is somewhere around 60% to 70%, in some cases even more.

The capital cost of wind projects are dominated by the cost of the turbine. In this blog you will find quite a lot of post detailing the other costs associated with the project, usually called “Balance of Plant” (BoP).

As a rule of thumb I would say that the turbines, fully installed and operational (that is, including transportation, installation and commissioning costs) will be somewhere between 60% to 80% of the total investment.

How much does an industrial, multi megawatt wind turbine cost?

It’s obviously not easy to answer this question as it’s dependant on several variables such as number of turbines purchased, transportation costs (marine and overland), financing, insurance and warranties, etc. Actually is so critical that companies in the wind business have usually specialized departments devoted to the gentle art of Pricing.

However several reliable sources (Bloomberg in primis - they are the source for the image above) are concordant on the fact that the cost per megawatt is steadily decreasing.

When I joined the wind industry (2010) a MW was somewhere around 1.4 to 1.6 million dollars -  that is, you could expect to pay around 3 ML$ for a 2 MW wind turbine.

Today (end of 2018) prices have dropped dramatically. Buying a turbine today, with delivery at the end of the next year, will probably cost around 1 M$ per MW.

There are several reasons behind this price drop. I believe that the main 2 are scale factor (today, 3 to 4 MW wind turbines are the norm while in the past the standard was 1.5 to 2 MW) and market pressure in the majority of developed markets (USA and Europe).

To summarize, to invest in wind energy building your own small wind farm (1 turbine around 3MW, no substation or other substantial BoP costs) you would need probably between 0.5 and 1 ML$. This very rough estimate consider a total cost of the project between 3.5 and 4 ML$, with the banks financing around 70%.

 

Invest in wind energy option #2 – stocks and ETFs

A second alternative to invest in wind energy is given by stocks and ETFs of companies in the energy.

There are many “renewable energies” ETF and a bunch of solar ETFs.

However the choice for wind ETF is much more limited.

There used to be one ETF form Invesco (PWND) specialized in pure wind players but it has been delisted due to very low trading. Yes, that is not a good sign.

So, as far as I know today (2018) the only wind ETF is First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (FAN – a very appropriate name).

Not all the companies in this ETD are 100% wind: for instance, the biggest share (almost  10%) is Ørsted (or Dong, if you prefer the old name like me: Dansk Olie og Naturgas).

You will, however, find the big players, including  Longyuan Power (probably the biggest wind power producer in Asia) and all the usual suspects such as Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, etc.

What you will buy is very high volatility today, but probably also long term growth.

An alternative is to do some cherry picking and select the stocks one by one. Almost all players are traded (with some exceptions, for instance Enercon).

Wind Energy in Finland

One of the things I enjoy more in my job is that it gives me the possibility to work in several  different countries.

In  the last months I've had the pleasure to visit several time Finland for a project developed by Neoen (the French developer that it's about to launch its IPO) and Prokon.

It's a 81 MW project called "Hedet". 18 Nordex/Acciona N149 4.0-4.5 MW turbines will be installed under a full EPC contract in an area near Närpiö (a low - medium wind site in West Finland).

It will be built in 2019, bust some preliminary works for roads and tree cutting have already been started.

The energy will be used to power a Google data center (see my other post on this topic).

It’s interesting to note that this is a private, unsubsidized PPA – meaning that it is a transaction between companies, not a “classic” setup where the electricity is sold by the developer to an utility for public consumption.
I believe that this kind of deal will increase in the next years given the sharp decrease of solar and wind plants.

In addition to Hedet there is a second group of wind farm that will be built in Finland in 2019, a portfolio of 107 MW divided in 4 different projects, all of them with the N149/4.0-4.5 MW.

These project are developed by Ox2 (a big player in Northern Europe) and not EPC (they are "Clean Sell", to use a regrettable expression I've heard to define a Supply and Installation project).

The Ox2 projects are founded by IKEA - now you know were your money end when you buy the "Billy" bookcase (I think I bought like 5 of them when I was young).

Wind energy use is growing in Finland – the country started somehow late (in 2010 they had less than 200 MW installed) to accelerate strongly in the last few years. The country has over 2 GW installed now, covering about 5% of consumption.

I would like to thank our colleagues in Finland and all the subcontractor we’ve worked with in the last months. Thank you for your hospitality!