Nabrawind and Peikko have developed an innovative rock foundation for wind turbines that will be first implemented in the Elizabeth Bay wind farm developed by the renewables Franco/Namibian company InnoSun Energy.
Peikko, European leader in solutions for Onshore Wind Turbine Foundations, has a long and strong track record in this kind of foundations. Peikko’s will deliver steel components, such as FATBAR® Rock Anchors, to this project and also be responsible for the foundation design. However, what makes this foundation different is the fact of using the transition piece developed by Nabrawind for its Nabralift Tower.
This way, the transition piece distributes the load through three distant points directly anchored to the rock subsoil. Thanks to it, the size of the resulting footings is very small, and the number and metric of the anchors are reduced.
Another benefit of this foundation relies in the simplification of the manufacturing process on site. In fact, only two trucks are needed to bring the concrete onsite for each footing, avoiding, thus, the need of large local concrete plants. Along the logistic simplification, the excavation is also simplified, since only three local ground zones are affected.
Finally, the innovative foundation also benefits from a significant concrete reduction, which at the same time cuts downs the CO2 emissions by a 90% compared with standard foundation alternatives.
Ion Arocena, Program Manager of Nabralift, points out the excellent collaboration between both companies. “Thanks to the expertise of Peikko we have now a great solution to improve the competitivity of our Nabralift solution in rocky sites. We see a very interesting market for this solution, with two new projects already under negotiation”.
For their part, Peikko highlights the satisfaction from developing innovative projects like this one. It has a long experience especially in the Scandinavian market. However, Peikko has already taken first steps in Africa, since it has cooperated with the large Lake Turkana 365-turbine wind farm located in south of Sahara, Kenya. “We are extremely satisfied with this innovative project that we are facing in such a different country as Namibia. Our solutions are both reliable and timesaving, and we can also provide our customers important cost-savings in materials used. Being part of green energy production supports our goals for a more sustainable way to design and build”, says Antti Rousku, Sales Director at Peikko Corporation.
