Wind Farms

Sweetwater, Texas

Wind farms are a promising solution to creating clean energy, however the technology is new and not all situations have been experienced.

General Electric was the first to encounter a hub and rotor that needed to be removed and was stuck out of it's "rabbit ear" position.

Crane Service proposed the solution to manufacture specialized lifting lugs which would be used to take the rotor away from it's mount and then for a second crane rig to the original lugs.

At over a height of 150 feet the two cranes would then work together and rotate the rotor to it's "rabbit ear" position, followed by one of the cranes breaking free and the other cradling the hub and rotor to the ground.

For the Sweetwater Wind Farm the hub and rotors sit over 260 feet high and this procedure had never been attempted before.

Strenuous consideration was put into the loads reaction once the crane took it away from the house.

A miss calculation meant potentially losing a 300 ton Link-Belt crawler and a Manitowoc 2250 crawler along with the hub and rotor.