Peikko, a European company that specializes in solutions for onshore wind turbine foundations, says it will deliver steel components – such as FATBAR Rock Anchors – to the Elizabeth Bay wind farm located in Namibia, a country in southwest Africa. The solution for the wind farm’s turbine foundations will be provided by Nabrawind, a Spanish company that designs and develops advanced wind technologies.
Using its proprietary technology – the Nabrajoint and Nabralift – Nabrawind’s turbine foundation solutions are able to be anchored in rocky terrain that would otherwise be unfeasible to build on. The Nabrajoint is a segmented blade joint that allows module transportation and final assembly onsite. The Nabralift is a self-erecting tower that supports turbine installation without the use of large cranes.
The transition pieces provided by Nabrawind distribute the turbine’s load through three distinct points directly anchored to the rock subsoil. Due to Nabrawind’s innovative solution, the size of the resulting footings are very small – and the number and metric of the anchors are reduced.
Another benefit of Peikko and Nabrawind’s foundation solution is the simplification of the onsite manufacturing process. Only two trucks are needed to bring the concrete onsite for each footing – avoiding the need for large local concrete plants. Along with logistic simplification, the excavation is also simplified – only three local ground zones are affected. The amount of concrete used in the foundations is significantly reduced, resulting in a 90% decrease in CO2 emissions when compared to standard foundation alternatives.
“Thanks to the expertise of Peikko we have now a great solution to improve the competitiveness of our Nabralift solution in rocky sites,” says Ion Arocena, program manager of Nabralift. “We see a very interesting market for this solution – with two new projects already under negotiation”.
These will be the first projects to use the Nabralift solution to simplify the foundation in complex terrain. Other projects in marshlands and nearshore locations are also in the development phase.
