At the Schnürbuck wind farm near Ettenheim in Germany’s Black Forest, a repowering project is seeing six old turbines replaced with three Enercon E-160 EP5 E3 units. Specialist under-the-jib equipment from ematec is being used to overcome the site’s demanding forested terrain.
The Schnürbuck repowering project is a joint venture between Ökostromgruppe Freiburg, Ettenheimer Bürgerenergie, and Alterric. As part of the turbine installation work, ematec’s RBC generation rotor blade yokes have been deployed.
The adaptive blade mount can handle units ranging from 45 to 110 m long and stabilise them at inclination angles of up to ±30 degrees. Two counterweights at each wing of the yoke automatically adjust to the centre of gravity, with or without the blade.
At the Schnürbuck wind farm, RBC-D units are being utilised. With these units, both the lower gripper and the upper telescopic gripper are equipped with 14 hydraulically actuated and gimbal-mounted grip pads. The gripper hydraulic cylinders feature integrated safety valves that prevent blades from slipping out.
They also feature an autonomous positioning system (APS) from Seasight Solutions, whereby two propellers are mounted to the ematec yoke that enables the installation of rotor blades without the need for guide ropes or winches. According to ematec, this is a particular advantage in forested or steep terrain.
The company pointed to a recent installation project at Taubenkopf near Freiburg, where the use of the RBC-D and APS “was the only feasible solution due to the topography. Any other assembly method would have been impossible,” added ematec.
