Author: Francesco Miceli
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Self lifting precast wind towers
A couple of months ago I’ve been invited by Esteyco to the erection of a prototype auto lifting precast wind tower. Although I was unable to attend due to other meetings I want to describe shortly their invention, which looks interesting. Basically, the idea is to create a tower that can “lift itself” without the…
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Raki wind farm, Cile
A spectacular video of Raki wind farm, a beautiful project I’ve worked at. Owned by Rame Energy (formerly Seawind) It is a 15 MW wind farm in the Bio Bio region (more or less in the middle of Chile). WTGs are 5x V112 3MW turbines, and civil works have been developed by CJR. The…
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Slopes stabilization using Vetiver
I’ve recently worked on a slope stabilization preliminary project. Among other action, the use of Vetiver grass for stabilization purposes has been suggested by the customer, who had used it successfully in another wind farm in the same area. Although this technique is used in Italy and other European country I was not an expert,…
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Disclaimers you shouldn’t accept in a BOP/EPC turnkey contract
Having the pleasure of studying dozens of subcontractors offers each month I’ve already seen a huge number of disclaimers. Some of them are reasonable, some of them can be removed (basically, giving a price tag to the subcontractor risk excluded by the disclaimer) but some are “deal breakers”. Which are the disclaimers that I warmly…
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Blade lifter: from dream to reality
This post is a follow up of my other post on the blade lifter. When I’ve been discussing about this solution with the other guy in the business 3 or 4 years ago, they told me it was something utopic, a “nice to have, but still a dream”. Well, apparently now the blade lifter arrived,…
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The five most abusive prices I’ve seen in the last years
Having the opportunity of working at several project worldwide I already discovered that the idea of what is “cheap” or “expensive” may vary a lot depending on the country. Also, huge countries like Brazil or Chile may show a relevant price dispersion depending on the area (Patagonia or Atacama desert?). A third consideration is that,…
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Pareto principle in wind farm civil works price
Among the numerous fenomenous that follow a Pareto distribution (i.e., 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes) there is the price of civil works in wind farms. Through the years we’ve developed a really completed, exhaustive documentation for tenders. Our beautiful Bill of Quantities includes hundreds of items. However, how many of…
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Wind farms roads and crane pads made of laterite
I’m currently having the pleasure of working at a wind farm project in Senegal. One of the challenges I’m facing is the use of unconventional materials, at least based on my European background. For instance, the internal roads and crane pads will be probably made of laterite, a solution very common in tropical climates successfully…
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FIDIC contracts in EPC Wind Farms
I’ve recently had the pleasure to be exposed recently to the FIDIC contracts structure. Therefore I want to share with you my impression regarding the possibility of using this type of contract in wind farm EPC tenders. The first FIDIC contract was released in the fifties. After half a century, the FIDIC contract family is…