27.02.08

First turbines up

Turbine installation works at the Waubra Wind Farm site are progressing well. Tower sections from Portland and nacelles from Spain started arriving at Waubra just before the Christmas break. The nacelles house the generator and hold the propellor like structure known as the rotor. The first blades were transported from Port Melbourne to site in mid January.

Each turbine arrives on site in four main components: tower (in three sections), nacelle, hub and blades. The turbines are being installed using cranes to lift the turbine parts into position. The area around the base of each turbine, called a ‘hard stand’, supports assembly and lifting equipment for installing the turbine.

The first step in constructing a turbine is to erect the tower consisting of three sections. The next step is to install the nacelle that houses the mechanical equipment on top of the tower. Then the three blades are attached to the hub and the complete rotor is lifted into place and joined to the nacelle. To view photos of a turbine installation click here.

The first base section of a tower was installed on Monday 17 December, the first nacelle was lifted and placed into position on Wednesday 9 January, and on Saturday 19 January the first turbine was completed.

Starting in the South East of the wind farm, the site crew consisting of Acciona Energy, Acciona Windpower and Keppel Prince Engineering, will work on turbine installations throughout this year. The crew aims to install three turbines a week. Components for the turbines, including tower sections, blades, nacelles and hubs will be transported to the site throughout the installation phase.

Acciona Energy has planned to complete the installation of the 128 wind turbines by the end of this year, depending on the right weather conditions to safely lift the heavy equipment. The progress of turbine installations highly depends on weather conditions. High wind and hot days can make turbine installations difficult.

Bruce Payne, Construction Manager explains, “We plan construction works around weather forecasts. For extremely windy days, when the main 92 metre crane can’t operate, we program to erect base tower sections using the smaller cranes. On wet days we do construction planning and get our gear ready for future works.”

 

 

 

 

First tower section arriving at Waubra

 

Nacelle at the Port of Melbourne