Author: Francesco Miceli
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
CBR value – road aggregate thickness correlation
After a long search I’ve finally found a direct correlation between CBR and gravel thickness for unpaved gravel roads. I’ve discovered that often wind farms are built in areas with a low (<5%) to very low CBR. Somehow empirically, we’ve started with a standard 20 cm layer of gravel. We’ve learned the hard way that…
-
AASHTO green book equation in wind farms road design
I’ve been recently asked to justify the roadbed thickness for a wind farm I’ve designed. For several reasons (mainly because the majority of documents are redacted by non-civil engineers) the engineering companies supporting our customer ask for a written demonstration that the road design comply with the requirement of the famous AASTHO 1993 green book….
-
Relevant parameters in wind farm production
After the connection of a Wind Farm to the grid several parameters are used to analyze the smooth operation of the installation. The more relevant are: Capacity Factor [latex size=”1″]CF=\left( \frac{E(kWh)}{P(kW) T(h)}\right )[/latex] Is a parameter used frequently in power producing plant. A high capacity factor means that the plant is working almost continuously (for…