Source: Energy & Management Powernews, July 28, 2022
Making the concrete towers of wind turbines faster and transporting them with normal trucks - these innovations are now being implemented by tower manufacturer Max Bögl Wind.
Max Bögl Wind AG believes that some technical innovations will prepare it for higher sales of towers for onshore wind turbines, which it expects to see as a result of the new addition targets and the quest for energy independence from Russia. During the addition and covid lull, it implemented innovations that are now coming to fruition, the family-owned company from Sengenthal in eastern Bavaria explained in response to a query from this editorial team. Bögl does not reveal how high the throughput has been so far for competitive reasons.
The new tower system under the brand name "Hybrid Tower 2.0" no longer consists of half shells - this was also a Bögl innovation - but of one-third rings that are assembled into rings at the wind turbine site. 17 to 19 steel-reinforced special concrete rings are stacked on top of each other and braced together as before. The concrete tower closes off at the top directly under the nacelle with a metal tube.
The advantage of the one-third rings: they weigh only 3 to 4 t and, at a height of 3 m, are so compact that they can be transported from the factory to the turbine site by a normal truck. This eliminates the need for lengthy heavy-duty transports with police escorts and approval procedures. And the cranes can be designed to be lighter. Only the metal tube still has to be welded together at the factory and, with a diameter of 20 m and a weight of 60 t, still needs heavy-duty transport.
Max Bögl Wind sees itself as "one of Germany's leading tower system suppliers" for onshore wind farms. The one-third ring system was used for the first time at the beginning of 2010 together with wind turbine manufacturer Vensys at a wind farm in Drohndorf (Saxony-Anhalt). It is currently also being installed at the "Weißer Turm" citizens' wind farm between Wargolshausen and Wülfershausen in the Rhön-Grabfeld district of Bavaria (for the protracted history of the wind farm, see box below).
Other innovations in the manufacture of Bögl towers include:
- the introduction of the Lean Management method as well as
- "as of now" a new polyurea-based paint for the concrete elements. This can now be painted directly after stripping and filling twice, even though the concrete still has residual moisture. "In addition, the parts could still be warm due to the reaction heat of the concrete," explains Bögl production manager Holger Roth in a release from supplier Frei Lacke of Bräunlingen-Döggingen in the Black Forest. The epoxy resin primer between the filler and the paint, both now from Frei Lacke, is no longer required. After a total of one hour, the paint has already dried. After finishing, the concrete parts are stored in the outdoor area of the Bögl plant, without wind and weather could harm them.
On Bögl towers are the highest wind turbines in operation in the world, as well as the most powerful wind turbine in Bavaria: in Gaildorf in eastern Württemberg, four GE turbines have been in operation since 2017, which are 178 m high to the hub and 246.5 m high to the rotor blade tip. And on the Winnberg in the same district of Neumarkt/Oberpfalz as the Bögl plant, a wind turbine has been generating 3.4 MW since 2011.
The "Weißer Turm" and 10H
Civic wind farm celebrated its topping-out ceremony in June in the presence of Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Freie Wähler). Nacelles of the type Nordex N117-2.4 will be erected there on ten 141 m high "Hybrid Towers 2.0" by Bögl.
The "White Tower" is scheduled to go online in August. It, too, is an example of how the 10H regulation in particular, according to which new wind turbines must be at least ten times their height away from residential buildings, have almost stopped the expansion of wind power in Bavaria: As early as April 2014, a project company made up of pioneers Harald Schwarz and Jürgen Rüth had a building permit with Überlandwerk Rhön, according to Max Bögl Wind AG, from which the novel, third-tier tower rings originate. But opposing citizens' initiatives complained through all instances.
A change permit for more modern and more powerful turbines was canceled in 2020 by the Administrative Court of Würzburg. Reason: 10H. Only the originally planned wind turbines remained approved. Foundations for the newer turbines that had already been poured therefore had to be removed by the investors in April 2021. Immediately afterwards, the project partners Bögl and Wust Wind & Sonne began with the realization of the wind farm. The originally planned 13 turbines became ten through a settlement with the affected communities.
Author: Georg Eble
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