Last week we were in New Orleans (LA) in the AWEA 2016 exhibition, where SIEMENS ENERGY INC. introduced a new tower, designed for a 2.4MW turbine and 107m (350 ft.) rotor, which means around 140T (127t) static load on top of the tower.
This CONCRETE tower reaches a height of 114m (374 ft.), which is a NEW RECORD in the US!
3 years ago in the US other OEM, ACCIONA WIND POWER, constructed a 100m high concrete precast/prestressed tower for a 3MW turbine.
It is a remarkable industrial product with various innovations, one of which is to introduce a new concept of concrete tower: It is “precasted on-site”, which means it is very near to the final position. This concept aims to remove the transportation of precast parts, which is expensive due to the heavy loads and large pieces.
Undoubtedly using higher towers is a current trend which aims to reduce the LCoE, and concrete helps make higher and more powerful turbines.
The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXN1UAv1anQ
