New design blowing in the wind

Adelaide Advertiser
Tuesday 5/2/2008 Page: 45

WIND farm developers are achieving significant construction cost savings as well as reducing the impact on the environment with a new-approach turbine footing designed by Built Environs. The design aims to save developers about $100,000 per footing - a savings which can run into millions of dollars where wind farms have multiple footings.

The Built Environs design anchors the footing in rock. It involves laying a concrete foundation 7m in diameter and up to 2m in depth - held in place by multi-strand steel anchors up to 20m. A more traditional footing design uses gravity and is made of reinforced concrete, sometimes up to 18m in diameter metres of concrete used for each turbine base.

The footprint is substantial, and adds costs for construction and time. "Two real benefits (from the new design) are shorter construction time and a reduction in the environmental impacts caused through construction," Built Environs civil engineering manager Phil Cornish says.