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Wind Farm Balance of Plant
Everything in a wind farm that is not the turbine: roads, crane pads, foundations, cables, substations, and the engineering that ties them all together.
Written by a practitioner with real-world experience across dozens of projects in Europe, Latin America, and beyond.
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What You’ll Learn
A complete overview of every BoP discipline — from soil to substation
Geotechnical Investigation
Soil surveys, CPT tests, lab analysis, and how they drive foundation and road design
Access Roads & Crane Pads
Design criteria, material selection, drainage, and the logistics of moving 80-meter blades
Foundations
Gravity, rock-anchored, and piled foundations — design loads, concrete, and construction sequences
MV Cable Network
Cable sizing, trench design, route optimization, and how to minimize electrical losses
Substation & Grid
Transformers, switchgear, protection systems, and the connection to the national grid
Project Economics
Cost breakdown, BoP budget benchmarks, and how engineering decisions impact the bottom line
This is how it all started…
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to switch from the sector I was working in (infrastructure design) to renewables.
It seemed like an extremely interesting world to me, and I decided to start writing a blog to report on what I was discovering and what I found most interesting.
15+ years later the website is still up and running.
A lot has happened in the meantime – for example, three children have arrived, making it increasingly difficult to find the time to update it.
I hope you will excuse me if I am unable to write often. Of course if you feel like collaborating and sharing content you are welcome!
Happy reading, Francesco
Some articles you might find interesting
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Grouting the Tower-Foundation Interface — Materials, Process, and Quality Control
CONTINUE READING: Grouting the Tower-Foundation Interface — Materials, Process, and Quality ControlThe small layer that carries the full weight of a wind turbine — and why getting it wrong can be catastrophic. There is a thin layer of material between the steel tower of a wind turbine and the concrete foundation it sits on. It is typically 20 to 50 millimetres thick, it weighs less than…
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Wind Farm Foundation Repair: A Real Case Study
CONTINUE READING: Wind Farm Foundation Repair: A Real Case StudyWhen a gravity foundation cracks, how do you diagnose the problem, design the fix, and execute the repair — all while the turbine stays in place? Wind turbine foundations are designed to last 25 to 30+ years, matching the operational life of the turbine. They are massive reinforced concrete structures, typically buried several metres underground,…
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Wind Turbine Aerodynamics — How a Wind Turbine Extracts Energy
CONTINUE READING: Wind Turbine Aerodynamics — How a Wind Turbine Extracts EnergyYou don’t need to design blades to understand how they work. But understanding the basics will make you a better project engineer. This is an aerodynamics crash course with the practical essentials that a BoP engineer should have in their mental toolkit. Let’s start from first principles. A wind turbine converts kinetic energy from moving…