Author: Francesco Miceli
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Concrete tower assembly in Chile
An interesting video on the use of concrete towers in Chile. Among the benefits of this solution the creation of local jobs (several hundred for factory) and the increase of local content (the amount of goods and services provided locally, an important parameter in some tenders). Concrete towers are especially cost effective when the…
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Long term instrumented monitoring of wind turbine foundations cracks evolution
Some weeks ago I have discovered that, as I am currently enrolled as a university student (getting “slowly but steady” a second degree in Economics) I have full access to the Elsevier database. This is an enormous amount of information, including all the best scientific papers and technical articles published by industry journals. I am…
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Over and over and over again: serial defect clause
The serial defect clause is a warranty frequently requested by customers. It belongs to a classic “tryptic” of warranties allocating risk on the turbine suppliers: General warranty, for defect in design, manufacturing, installation, etc. Power curve warranty Serial defect warranty Generally speaking, a serial defect is a component defective on a significant number of turbines….
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Transfer of title & transfer of risk
Transfer of title and transfer of risk are 2 key concepts in wind farms contracts (and, presumably, in many other comparable businesses). They appear in both EPC and Supply Only agreements. This is what they usually means: Transfer of title (ToT): the ownership (of the entire turbine or of one of the component of the…
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Wind turbines defective parts warranty
Lately I’ve been spending some time trying to learn something more about quality. Although I see that there is no consensus on the business effectiveness of some of these technique I’ve decided to take a certification (ASQ Six Sigma Green Belt) to have a first-hand experience. One of the first concept I’ve learnt is the…
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Why wind turbine blades are made of composite materials?
I’ve received a question regarding material selection for wind turbines blades. The reader asked why there is a predominance in the use of composite materials for the blades instead of wood, steel and aluminium and other materials used in the first glorious, pioneering years of wind energy. Please note that I’m by no mean an…
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Wind turbine controlled demolition
A reader of the blog shared a video with the controlled demolition of a wind turbine in the UK. The turbine looks like an old Acciona Windpower model. The turbine is connected using a rope to a back hoe and the base of the tower is slowly cut using a blowtorch. Then the backhoe start…
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Multirotor wind turbine: an update
Some time ago I wrote a post about the interesting concept of multirotor wind turbines, including the full scale prototype built by Vestas with 4 refurbished V29-225kW (that is, with a 29 meters rotor diameter). It has been installed in a test site of the Technical University near Roskilde, in Denmark – I believe I’ve…
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What happen to decommissioned wind turbines?
In a previous post I mentioned my experience with a repowering (a wind farm where the old turbines are exchanged with new models to increase the production and lower the maintenance costs). But what happen with the old turbines when they are dismantled? For some of them there might be a new life. There is…
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PMP methodology & wind farm project management
This week I had the pleasure to pass the PMP (Project Management Professional) exam – one of the two leading certifications for project managers, the other being PRINCE2 from the UK. The exam itself is notoriously not trivial: long (200 questions in 4 hours) and based on a book very hard to read, the Project…