Self-erecting wind turbine cuts energy costs

A WIND farm near Lüderitz is using pioneering self-erecting technology to build turbines without heavy cranes, significantly reducing costs and wind-related installation delays. InnoVent’s Diaz wind farm made use of Spanish engineering company Nabrawind’s Skylift technology to build the turbine. “The turbine essentially builds itself upward from the ground,”

InnoVent executive director for southern Africa Tom Torne says. The traditional way of building wind turbines requires cranes to stack sections on top of each other. “A self-erecting system lifts the components from the ground and progressively assembles the tower section by section, without the need for a large crane.