Project: Design and research of Telescopic Mechanism for Precast Concrete Towers.
The project shall fully develop a revolutionary wind tower system and its associated erection process: a self-installing telescopic tower which for the first time ever shall allow for crane-free installation of towers and turbines. It will also profit from the structural efficiency and economy of industrialized precast concrete._x000D_Every wind tower in the world up to now, onshore or offshore, has depended for its installation on large cranes which lift all the tower elements to their final position. Esteyco Energia (EE) and ALE join forces to provide a new high-capacity and cost-reducing tower scheme and installation process which will generate increased capabilities for onshore wind and shall enable a radical step forward for offshore wind._x000D_The combination of the leading expertise of EE in wind tower engineering and ALE in heavy-lift systems and operations provides the necessary ingredients to overcome the remarkable technical challenges for the full development of such a breakthrough novel technology. The project includes a full scale testing prototype as an indispensable derisking requirement for market penetration._x000D_The telescopic system consists of precast tubular tower levels which are preassembled in a “folded” configuration together with the nacelle and blades. Since work at this stage is limited to low heights, it can be carried out using economic readily available cranes._x000D_Once preassembly is finished, the tower can be lifted to its final position by means of cables and heavy lift jacks which are reused to lift one tower level after the other. The jacks that lift each level are supported by the one below, which also guides the hoisted tube as it rises, thus resulting in a self-installing procedure in which the tower itself is the only supporting structure required._x000D_The high capacity and efficiency of heavy-lift jacks for hoisting large weights must be outlined: as a reference, the cost per tonne lifting capacity of one such jack is around three orders of magnitude lower than that of a mobile crane reaching 100m high. Once ready, this system shall have virtually no limitation in the hub-height that can be achieved or the turbine size that is to be installed._x000D_The weight of the tower itself will equally not be a limiting factor, allowing for the efficient use of precast concrete which is heavier than the steel of conventional towers but provides improved structural capacity at lower cost. Fatigue tolerance and increased COtenance-free durability of structural concrete become additional attributes._x000D_It is finally pointed out that the new system aims simultaneously to two closely related but different markets: onshore and offshore wind._x000D_For onshore wind, it shall provide new capabilities to efficiently reach increased hub-heights with larger turbines, overcoming the constraints currently generated by the capacity, cost and availability of high-tonnage mobile cranes, as well as by the structural limitations of conventional steel tubular towers._x000D_EE, as origin and exclusive technological P of sister company Inneo Torres, has engineered its worldwide pioneer development and industrialization of concrete towers. Their alliance holds a majority share in the growing market of precast concrete onshore wind towers, as well as an extensive client portfolio, having supplied towers internationally to companies such as Acciona, Gamesa, Siemens, Alstom or Impsa/Vensys. The privileged position and recognition in the onshore market will add up with ALE’s renowned reliability and worldwide track record for heavy transportation and lifting, allowing for direct market introduction of the new evolved tower system, as soon as its development can be completed and tested. It will complement the current concrete tower technology aiming in particular to regions where there is a greater tendency to higher hub-heights, often combined with shortage of capable enough cranes, such as inner Brazil, southern Germany, Canada, Scandinavia or Eastern Europe._x000D_For offshore wind, where the need for heavy-lift crane vessels imposes even greater constraints and costs that exponentially grow as wind farms move deeper, the new technology will become a radical innovation allowing for a ground-breaking concept for the complete substructure (tower and foundation), with the additional advantage that it can be proved onshore._x000D_Such patent-pending concept, already taken to a high level of development by EE in a 3 year R&D effort, uses a gravity based foundation configured to temporarily act as a buoyant platform which shall carry the self-installing tower together with the complete wind turbine. Thanks to the telescopic configuration of the tower, each unit can be fully assembled onshore and yet be conventionally towed to the site, ballasted to the seabed and auto-telescoped to its final configuration, becoming the first and only system to completely avoid the dependence on transportation or heavy-lift vessels and reducing overall costs._x000D_
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Acronym
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EE-ALE TWT
(Reference Number: 8542)
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Duration
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01/10/2013 - 31/12/2015
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Project Topic
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The principal aim of the project is to research on a new method of erecting precast concrete towers, through a process of telescopic segments made of precast concrete._x000D_After finishing the design steps, a full scale prototype is going to be built to validate the results.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
