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Caterpillar solutions for wind turbine deconstruction
By caterpillar | Posted: October 3, 2023
The operational lifetime of an onshore wind turbine is about 20-25 years. Today more and more old wind turbines are being replaced with larger and more efficient turbines that have higher yields. At some point in time, wind turbines will reach the end of its life and valuable resources must be returned to the material cycle.
Wind turbines are a valuable source of resources which can be reused. Up to 80% of a dismantled wind turbine can be recycled as most of these materials are made up of concrete, steel and cast iron. Additionally, to concrete and steel the dismantling of a tower generally also produces non-ferrous metals such as aluminum from the tower components and copper from the power cable in the tower.
Caterpillar solutions
Caterpillar offers solutions allowing the operator to dismantle wind turbines and rehabilitate the land on which they were installed. Your Cat® dealer can help to study the feasibility and identify the required equipment. Also, when it comes to the time of implementation and to ensure that it follows local environmental rules.
Your Cat dealer offers not only the machines necessary for the project, but also the work tools for dismantling, recycling and disposal of the materials used. All of which can be subject to maintenance monitoring by your dealer throughout the duration of the project to optimize time and cost.
Optimizing operating costs is done with Cat technology solutions. The new generation of excavators, such as 323, 330 and 336 to name a few offer new features to improve comfort, increase productivity and efficiency on each job site.
Example of concrete foundation dismantling
Wind turbine:
80 meters high with 80-ton generator box. Mast, generator box, blades and anchor cage foundation. Total weight approximately 250 tons.
Concrete base:
The concrete foundation is 22 meters in diameter and is made up of 300 m3 of concrete and 35 ton of reinforcement (40 and 60 mm).
The project study showed that the expected time needed to dismantle the concrete foundation would take 5 days per base. In reality the dismantling time took 4 days per base. This was due to the machine and work tools recommendation by, in this case, the French Cat dealer Bergerat Monnoyeur.
The work that was carried out was disbursement of the base that is buried 3 meters (N-3), breaking of the foundation with a hydraulic hammer equipped with automatic lubrication, cutting of scrap metal with scrap shears and the removal of scrap and concrete with sorting grapples and buckets.
Fleet used:
For this project the following machines and tools have been used.
Cat 352 NGH excavator with CW quick coupler, bucket and 5-ton H190S hydraulic hammer.
Cat M322 NGH wheeled excavator with the S3035 hydraulic scrap shear that was boom mounted.
Cat 320 NGH excavator with CW quick coupler and G318-D sorting grapple.
The land has been restored to the original conditions. If you would like to know more about this application or Caterpillar equipment than contact your local Caterpillar dealer who is the best partner for advice on applications and equipment.
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