Today many resources can make the engineer life´s easier helping create a renewable energy project in any spot of the world.

Powerful GIS and CAD software and an incredible amount of data available from either public or private entities make possible designs with a sufficient level of accuracy to have good cost estimations, even at early stages of the project.

However no tool is good enough to give you the amount of information a site visit can provide. This is a step that can give a boost of extra quality to the design process.

Whenever possible, doing a visit to the project area is highly recommendable.

There are many circumstances which could make it impossible, such as aggressive delivery dates, excessive travel distances or lately pandemics.

Also priorities matters: we cannot compare the preliminary work needed for a tender phase in a very early stage with the final detailed execution design of a constructive wind farm project.

In this article I collected some tips to successfully plan a Site Visit:

Transport

Hiring a 4x4 car (4 Wheel Drive or similar) is a must. Take into account that we will usually find unpaved roads in uncertain conditions or even no roads at all.

Depending on the actual state, it would be wise sometimes pulling over, park the car and go to the targeted place walking.

Furthermore, companies are already offering already internally a 4x4 off road driver training. We can find a lot of difficulties and a skilled drive behind the wheel is a blessing. See below the state of a track in a recent site visit… Yes, we were able to arrive home safe.

Food and breaks

It could be the case that the site is in the middle of nowhere without direct access to any populated village. Even if that is not the case, we will have to assess the convenience of having lunch in a restaurant or canteen with the risk of losing valuable time in the travel. Anyway, we must prepare and take with us some food (e.g. sandwich and fruit would be a good combination) and enough bottled water for the whole journey. Short breaks every 3-4 hours to have some rest and eat some snacks is also highly recommendable. A well planned visit should have account for this moments and there should not be excuses for skipping them.

Clothing and HSE

For a good feet protection, construction security boots with reinforced toe will serve well enough. If construction has not started yet, hiking boots could be another option. Waterproof resistant trousers or, alternatively, with resistant fabric are also recommended. On the other hand, we should follow some common sense rules such as taking a hiking cagoule (raincoat) if we are expecting rain or a cap, sun glasses and sun protection for hot and sunny days.

A careful study of particular conditions at the project site shall be done to avoid any surprise.

Reflective vests were needed in a visit I made to Sweden because the wind farm was in an hunting ground. Anybody without proper clothes hiking in the mountains was in danger of being shot.

Another example was a visit I recently made to Australia. It was in December and the wave of forest fires was at its peak. Of course, temperatures raised easily to 35-40ºC and the initial temptation was to use short sleeved T-shirts. The fact is that the project area was full of ticks and a complete protection of the body was required to avoid any undesired surprise. I found myself shaking some of them out of my shoulders.

Visit planning

To make the most of our trip, we need to carefully plan our journeys beforehand.

Here goes a proposal with some key aspects. How to organize them will depend on the particular circumstances of the project:

• If a route survey has already been done, follow the route sketched from the point of discharge (usually a maritime port) of the WTG components to the wind farm site and make sure that the report matches the reality. If there is not a route survey in place, try to find alternatives on site. If there is more than one option, we can use one route to go and other route to return.
• Visit to the nearest towns or villages to assess the best place to stablish central headquarters and/or employee’s accommodations. A project execution phase will normally take, in the best scenario, several months. Finding a place within a one-hour radius to the construction site with leisure offer and good services will contribute to a keep the teams spirit up. As a rule of good practice, it is recommendable talking with the locals, as they will always be able to provide valuable information.
• Go to commercial quarries close to the site. It is always good to know quality and properties of the available material, unit costs and availability. In general, no appointment is required but it would be a rule of good practice calling before to know whether anybody can receive us.
• If not already defined, search for possible places to stablish the site compounds.
• Inspection of suitable areas that may serve as storage points for the WTG components.
• Check all the WTG positions one by one. As a rule of thumb, experience says that a realistic planning should contemplate a properly assessment of a range between 10 to 15 WTG locations. Of course, it will always depend on the site conditions, the state of the existing roads and how far the positions are from the nearest driveable path.
• Visit to the substation area and the point of connection to the existing electrical network.

Of course, there will be always unexpected events that we will have to handle once on site. However, taking the good habit of following these rules before travelling reduces the odds of facing undesired surprises as well as gives the engineer the chance to work in a more efficient way and even enjoy the journey.

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 rotor fully assembled on the ground before erection. It start to be an outdated practice due to current rotors size and weight:

The different areas of a crane pad in a wind farm in Australia (Goldwind's Cattle Hill):

Main crawler crane and its elements:

A blade lifted by an auxiliary crane. One of the workers is under a suspended load - not a best practice:

Workers completing the anchor cage assembly:

One of the future challenges of wind energy is to find a solution to recycle old blades from decommissioned wind turbines. In this post I will try to summarize several possible alternatives and to describe in detail what I think is currently the best option: to use them as a component for the production of cement.

The development of this interesting technical solution started in 2005 when one of the largest wind turbine manufacturer asked LafargeHolcim (a global cement producer) to use the decommissioned blades in cement production plants.

In 2008 Geocycle (the business unit of LafargeHolcim specialized in use of waste to produce cement) launched the full scale development of the solution in the Lägerdorf cement plant, in Northern Germany.

The recycling start in the wind farm, where the blades are cut in 10 meters long pieces using a mobile cutting technique that reduce the generation of fine dust humidifying the area. The resulting water is collected and brought to the recycling plant together with the other materials.

The pieces are then transported by train or truck to a pre-processing plant.

Here the blades are cut before in segments with a length around 1 meter and subsequently shredded in smaller pieces, with a final length of some millimetres.

Metals, both ferrous and not ferrous, are separated automatically from the material flow by magnet and eddy current magnet devices.

Finally, the crushed blade dust is mixed with a humid substrate material made of other residues such as plastic labels and miscellaneous packaging materials. The purpose of this substrate is to homogenize and bind together the blade dust. The material composing the substrate are wastes from other processes such as paper recycling.

All process steps in the pre-treatment plant are fully automated and performed in a controlled atmosphere. This guarantee maximum levels of occupational health and safety.

The end product is put in the cement plant.

In the pre-calciner (an element of the cement plant that optimize fuel consumption) the resin matrix is used as an alternative fuel, substituting coal, petroleum coke, heavy fuel oil or natural gas.

At a temperature around 900 °C the resin burn transforming the blade fibers into ashes. These ashes are then going together with the rest of the calcinated raw materials - usually a mixture of limestone and clay - in the sintering zone of the cement kiln to produce the clinker.

Finally the clinker is ground into a fine powder together with a small amount of gypsum creating the final product, cement.

The cement produced using wind turbine blades is indistinguishable in terms of quality from the standard product obtained without using the blades. It can be sold in the market or used again in wind farms, for instance in wind turbines foundations, closing the loop.

This solution provide alternative raw materials for cement production, reducing the need for quarrying, stone crushing and transportation. The ash of a wind turbine blade consists mainly of silica (SiO2) and calcium oxide (CaO) and due to this substantial amounts of natural resources like carbonate rock (limestone) and clay (usually in the form of sand) can be saved.

Additionally, it has to be noted that this solution contribute to savings of fossil fuel: the resin of the blade provide energy (around 12 MJ/Kg). This value is approximately the half of hard coal:  therefore each tonne of rotor blade substitute around half a tonne of hard coal.

It’s important to note that this solution has been indicated in 2011 as the best option available in a Position Paper subscribed by the European Composites Industry Association and other relevant category associations.

The test phase was successfully concluded in 2009 and the solution has been made commercially available since 2010.

I see several interesting benefits associated with this technique:

1. It is capable of dealing with large amounts of materials, since the cement plants can handle thousands of tons of material.
2. It address as much as possible geographically local opportunities, because it’s operated by LafargeHolcim, a multinational company active worldwide with over 2000 operation sites.
3. It is feasible right now, because it is a commercially mature solution currently used in Germany and neighbouring countries. Hundreds of blades have already been recycled.
4. It is cost-effective, because is the second cheapest alternative after landfilling.
5. It address the totality of the materials of the blades, because the resin matrix is used as combustible, the fibres become part of the cement and other elements (e.g. metallic components) are separated upfront in the pre-processing unit.
6. It follow strict environmental and safety standards. This solution has been developed in Germany (one of the first country to ban the landfill of wind turbines blades) and it has been certified by third party bodies.

The final cost is function of several parameters, such as the number of blades to be recycled, the distance of the wind farm from the nearest cement plant and the need to adapt the pre-processing facility.

Therefore, final cost will depend on scale factors, logistic costs and pre-treatment costs.

There are several other alternative. I will try to summarize them in the next paragraphs.

Landfill: Blades are sectioned into pieces of suitable dimensions and placed in a landfill. Transportation and preliminary shredding is needed.

Here no material recovery is possible and some national and local legislation impose high landfill taxes or complete bans on composites material with high organic percentage such as the blades.

Additionally, legislation worldwide is expected to become stricter acting as a driver for the development of alternative solutions and the creation of a recycling market, either with an extended ban or with a sharp price increase for landfill of blades.

Mechanical processes: Blades are reduced in size and separate into powder and fibrous fractions via cutting, crushing, shredding, grinding, or milling processes.

Finer pieces are sorted and used as fillers or reinforcements or as fuel for thermal waste processes.

This is currently done on a limited commercial scale and theoretically it has a wide range of potential applications for material recovery.

However, from an economical point of view it is competing with the lower market cost of alternative virgin fillers (calcium carbonate, silica).

Additionally, it has been observed a reduction of the mechanical properties of the resulting material (lower stiffness and strength). For instance, concrete made using shredded blades instead of crushed stones has unsatisfactory mechanical properties.

The only viable mechanical process currently operating in the market, presented as the competitor solution, is the one offered by Global Fiberglass Solutions, detailed in the following paragraph.

Mechanical processes - Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) pellets: The blades are transformed into small pellets that are sold under the brand name of “EcoPoly Pellets”. They are usable in injection mold and extrusion manufacturing processes and they are made from a customized blend of wind turbine blade materials.

EcoPoly Pellets are made to order for final customers based on the requirements of the customer’s own manufacturing process. GFS has initiated distribution options for pellet and has already found several wind farmers owner willing to provide decommissioned blades as input material for pellet production.

I believe that this technique it is currently available only in the USA.

Thermal processes - incineration: Blade sections are incinerated at high temperatures – usually over 800 °C.

Organic substances are combusted and converted into non-combustible material (ash), flue gas and energy. This process is usually combined with energy production and heat recovery.

The ash could also be used as a substitute for aggregate in other applications recovering the material or landfilled. However, no economically viable uses have been found for the ashes (beside the proposed use as input for cement production).

The advantage is that there are already numerous incineration plants available and that it can be done at attractive prices.

The disadvantage is that no large parts can be incinerated, making necessary a preliminary shredding.

Additionally, blades have a high ash content (around 50% to 65%) that needs to be landfilled afterwards with the associated transport and landfill tax costs.

Finally, burning blades create residues that can cause problems in the gas filtering systems.

For all these reasons this solution has been discarded.

Thermal processes – Pyrolysis: Blades are sectioned into suitable dimensions and decomposed using heating ovens in an inert atmosphere (450-700 °C).

Material is recovered in the form of fibres which can be reused in other industries. For instance, in pilot tests they have been used for glues, paints and concrete. Other products of this process include syngas (that can later be combusted for electricity and heat recovery) and char (recycled as fertilizer)

Under certain boundary conditions the resin matrix can be transformed in an oil “Pyrolysis Oil”.

The problem with this technique is that significant amount of energy are needed to activate the pyrolysis, impacting the overall environmental value of the solution.

Furthermore, available laboratory tests show a degradation of the properties of the glass fibers and no secondary market has been found.

Additionally, test have been performed only at laboratory scale so it is considered a solution with a low technological maturity.

Thermochemical processes – Solvolysis: Chemical solvents (water, alcohol, acid) are used to break the resin matrix bonds at elevated temperatures (300-650 °C) and pressures conditions.

Among all the solvents currently tested, water appears as the most commonly used. In this case the process is called hydrolysis.

Fibre materials recovered have a similar strength and could be reused in other applications. The resins as well can be separated and combusted for energy recovery

As far as I am aware test have been performed only at laboratory scale, mainly with focus on carbon fibres composites.

Moreover, due to the low market price of glass fiber, no secondary market is existing.

Working on a variety of projects worldwide I sometimes see unusual requests from customers that want to complement their new wind farm with some nonstandard feature.
I’m collecting here my personal top 5 of “...are you REALLY sure you want it?”. Even if often this type of requirements can lift considerably the price (and make the project less attractive) customers are often irremovable in their request.

#5 – Reserve main transformer. Sometime also poetically called “cold transformer” this is basically a very expensive spare parts to keep parked somewhere in the substation. With a price tag around 1 million it looks like a very expensive price to pay to have a backup in case something goes wrong with the main transformer.

#4 – Residences for the Service technician. In very big wind farm sometimes it’s a good idea to have someone on site 24/7. If the wind farm is in the middle of nowhere it can be also a good idea to provide fully furnished houses.

#3 – Gym. The same Service technician living in the middle of nowhere will presumably need something to do while they are off duty. A properly equipped gym can provide a good use for their spare time.

#2 – Mosque. With a mosque we are becoming very near to the concept of “wind farm town”. It was also a good opportunity to learn something more about the various requirements of this type of religious building.

#1 – Watchtowers. By far the most unusual requirement ever. Basically, a place where an armed guard can watch from a vantage point who is approaching the wind farm, with electricity (you will need to connect it to the substation somehow) and septic tank.

When I talk about my job with people coming from different businesses I receive often question linked to the “environmental impact” of wind turbines.

This term include various effect related to the construction of a wind farm. They can be summarized in the following categories:

Visual impact

Are wind turbines ugly or not? This is a difficult question. Probably I’m biased, but I think they are beautiful – or at least, better than a nuclear plant, unless you like concrete cooling towers. Some nacelles shape have been designed by artist (like the first Acciona models) or architects, like Enercon’s egg shaped solution. It has been designed by Sir Norman Foster and has been awarded with the Design Council Millennium Products Award, the same prize given to beautiful stuff like the Lotus Elise.

However in several countries a specific study is done to evaluate the visual impact of the turbines. There are several indicator and methodologies, however this is usually done considering the “weighted” average height of the horizon before and after the construction of the wind farms.

Noise generation

New generation turbines use a lot of tricks to keep noise low. Noise is coming above all from the tip of the blade, being the rotating equipment in the nacelle only a secondary source. The “easy” way to limit noise is limit the tip speed of the blade. Other strategies involve special profiles for the blade and software control of the machine to limit noise emission when needed (usually during the night, and/or when the wind is blowing from specific directions).

Electromagnetic interferences

This is easy to measure. In general electricity is generated at a low voltage (around 700 Volt) and MV cables are buried, so this impact is negligible.

Shadow flickering

This is the risk that someone living near the wind farm could experience, for a prolonged length of time, the intermittent shadow of the blades passing in front of the sun. This impact is relatively easy to simulate: there are software that, given the position of the turbines and the meteorological parameters (wind direction, percentage of sunny days) calculate the amount of time an observer located somewhere near the turbine would experience the flickering.

Bird strikes

One of the most discussed issues. You will find quite a lot of studies online, done in countries were wind energy and environmental sensibility is well developed (US, Germany, Spain, etc.). In general my impression is that, compared with other causes of bird death (hunt, high buildings, traffic, etc.), impact with turbine is accountable for a very small percentage.

Additionally modern wind turbines can be equipped with a lot of technology that minimize this risk (bat detectors, LIDAR systems, artificial vision, etc.). I had the pleasure of working at projects were the space between machine was large enough to lower the risk of impact, and additionally the turbines were stopped when migrating birds approaching the wind farms were detected.

A curious consequence of writing a blog about wind farms is that every now and then I’m contacted by someone hating wind energy.

In the majority of the cases, the writer also ask for help to stop or boycott a wind farm somewhere in the word, apparently ignoring the fact that wind turbines help me to bring food on the table every night.

To add insult to injury, in the emails they often ask me support to confirm some pseudoscientific “facts” about wind turbines.

I’ve collected some of them in this post – other are coming from anti-wind energy propaganda websites that I read on the subway when I’m bored to discover new, unexpected effect of windmills.

Some of them are similar to the urban legend of the albino alligator in the sewers of New York.

Feel free to contribute!

5. Wind farms causes bush fires. Well, it’s true that (very, very infrequently) a wind turbine burns somewhere. But to say that they are burning woods and bushes it’s a bit too much.

4. The foundations are poisoning the water. Unless you pump 1 million cubic meters of bentonite to do a piled foundation nothing will happen to the water – a foundation is basically only a big stone.

3. The turbine is scaring the fishes – I’m not fishing as much as before. This is courtesy of a fisherman in Juchitan de Zaragoza (Oaxaca, Mexico). I doubt that a fish 10 meters underwater can really hear a WTG.

2. You need more energy to build a wind farm than the energy produced by the turbines. I’ve seen several (serious, scientific) papers on the subject. The energetic payback is usually only a few months.

And the winner is...

1. Wind farms change the weather locally. I love this one. The theory is that, slowing the wind, wind farms modify somehow the climate in the area – some urban legends say that they warm it, some others that they make it more foggy. Well, at least here in norther Germany where I’m living they are not making it any warmer.