Sarens, the global leader and reference in crane rental services, heavy lifting, and engineered transport, is participating in the development of the renewable energy industry in Africa in the two new wind farms, Karosa and Soetwater, which are currently in the midst of construction in South Africa.
These two farm projects began in 2019 and work is expected to be finalized by the middle of the year. The Belgian company has been in charge of transporting, lifting and placing 70 turbines that make up the project. When completed, these wind farms will produce 280,000kW of energy for the country, which, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), would provide energy for 1,534 families in the region per year.
To start this work, Sarens mobilized all the necessary material and equipment from its headquarters in Port Elizabeth, (South Africa), a journey of approximately 1,290km by road. This entire process took just two weeks from the headquarters to the location of the wind farms in north Cape Town. The complexity of the journey lies in the amount of machinery transported, nevertheless the result was a success, by using nine additional trucks just to transport the AC500 crane.
The material and machinery selected for this job were chosen considering the relocation times. Therefore, the trucks and cranes chosen for this job favored a fast and optimal operation, eliminating any downtime. To carry out the project, which was based on transport, lift and place the turbines, it was required a forklift capable of pushing and pulling goods; several AC cranes: 80, 500, 160; three LTM mobile cranes: 160, 1500 and 1100; and an LG 1550 crane with 98m of boom, as well as a 10-axle self-propelled modular transport (SPMT) and several trucks and trailers for the relocation of people and machinery.
Once the equipment and material were at the first location, the construction began, which took only 15 hours despite poor weather and terrain conditions. Afterwards, the Sarens team moved on to the next plot, where the installation of a new turbine would be carried out. This process was repeated 70 times until all the turbines were assembled.
The material lifts were approached in two different phases strategically. First, the tandem formed by the tail and the upper part of the turbine and, subsequently, the rest of the lifts, all of them individually in order to have a better control of the activity.
The main challenge of this project was the limited time for its realization, which was solved thanks to a meticulous organization following the established schedule. After analyzing the geography of the work site, Sarens decided to add strategic machinery that would facilitate the constant transport of people and equipment, given that the wind farms are located in mountainous terrain, full of irregularities such as potholes and ditches.
Specifically, the Belgian company, thanks to its years of experience, decided to add to its equipment a forklift capable of carrying the LG 1550 crane, due to this solution, the time spent changing locations and waiting was minimized, performing the operation in the most effective and fast way.