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Porto Alegre (BRA) – CTE WIND Brasil, part of CTE Wind International, has been active in the Brazilian market since 2005. After 2.5 GW installed wind turbine power or over 1000 designed, value-engineered or peer-reviewed foundations the next years highlight will be the consolidation of the patented Soft-Spot® solution in the Brazilian market. The result of the astonishing solution is the significant optimization of the bill of quantities compared to a standard gravity foundation: Savings in concrete, decrease of the foundation diameter (less earthwork) and total weight reduction of reinforcement bars.

The Soft-spot® is implemented in various countries around the world. Over 50 wind farms around the globe, 750 wind turbines are using this resource saving solution. Argentina, Chile, France, Lithuania, Indonesia, Mexico, Netherland, Russia, Serbia, Sweden Thailand and Brazil. With two new projects, one under development in the state of Bahia with 52 foundations scheduled for construction in early 2021, and an other already finished wind farm with 37 Vestas wind turbines V150 4.2MW in Rio Grande do Norte, things are on his best way to accomplish CTE Winds goals to be responsive, efficient and reliable worldwide.

To learn more about the patented Soft-Spot® solution please contact our Brazilian sales team in Porto Alegre or go and visite our Solutions section.

If you want to learn more about CTE Wind Brasil you can read more articles about projects and news in OUR-PROJECTS & OUR-NEWS – sections. For more Information about OUR-SERVICES please CONTACT US.

«To work with CTE Wind as designer was nice. The speed of response and reliability of the planning has been a winning experience for us.»

Arjan Louwerse from H4a Windenergie B.V.

Coöperatie Zuidenwind has poured the concrete for the foundation in Heibloem in the Netherlands and created the basis for the installation of their wind turbines. The foundation design and calculation for this project was done by CTE Wind Civil Engineering. The expert in foundation design WTG suggested their Soft-Spot® instead of a typical pile foundation.

Heibloem (NL) / La Richardais (FR) – The Netherlands soil consistsof unconsolidated, very young sediments. Due to the proximity of the low-lying part of the European continent, the basin of the North Sea, the bottom rarely rises higher than 30 m above sea level. In the areas along the coast (provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland) the surface soil layers consist mainly of clay deposits. In the west of the Netherlands the clays are replaced by lowland moors (peat). To sum up: in the Netherlands, pile foundations are mandatory for wind turbines because of the concentrated forces occurring on little surface area. Except in Heibloem, where the ground is exceptionally stable. So good, in fact, that CTE Wind offered its resource-saving Soft-Spot® instead of the usual foundation.

Soft-Spot® in the Netherlands

The Soft-Spot® was developed by CTE Wind’s engineering team and is implemented in various countries around the world. «It was simply the most economical foundation we could choose », Arjan Louwerse from H4a Windenergie B.V. says. He is the project manager for Coöperatie Zuidenwind wind turbines. This foundation design optimizes the use of resources and helps to save up to 15 % of concrete and 2 to 5 % of reinforcement steel. In some cases what is even more important than the costs is the available space : with Soft-Spot® you need less surface for the foundation. This reduces the time and excavation costs. «The philosophy to reduce the costs of the Soft-Spot® was also a good point of discussion with our client. From the beginning we had a good feeling with the design», he explains.

In fact thanks to the new design the outer diameter of the foundation was 1.1m smaller compared to a typical foundation design. This resulted in a reduction of 11 % of concrete and 3 % of steel – or more precisely about 100m3 of reinforced concrete. «To work with CTE Wind as designer was nice. The speed of response and reliability of the planning has been a winning experience for us», Louwerse added. In spring 2020 the wind turbine will arrive together with the largest blades ever installed onshore in the Netherlands. (ctewind)

ASEAN Wind Energy will be held in The Adora Center HCMC, Asia from 27-28 October 2022, celebrating Wind Developers’ Excellence of the Year with exciting new content. Set across five remarkable event’s featured sections, AWE 2022 is set to be the biggest and best yet.

CTE Wind partecipates in Hamburg with an own stand.

ASEAN Wind Energy is one of the world’s most prestigious international wind power events and APAC’s premier clean energy event. Constantly breaking new ground, it has set a precedent in Southeast Asia ever-growing renewable energy community. Showcasing the best wind turbines tech and solution from across the globe, AWE provides a unique and exciting platform to network and establish long-term business relations with global top wind farm operators, turbine manufacturers, investors & financiers, legal and advisory firms, construction & component manufacturers, logistics & ports, supply & grid operation and wind tech solution suppliers.

SCHEDULE A MEETING

Viet-Hung Nguyen CEO of CTV Wind Asia will attend tThe Largest Onshore & Offshore Wind Energy Event in ASEAN Region. This is an excellent opportunity for interested companies to meet our sales team, learn more about CTE Wind’s expertise in civil engineering and foundations and discuss future collaborations..

Do not hesitate to contact us to organize a meeting.
See you soon in Ho Chi Minh City.

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CTE Wind R&D and Consulting services are the first choice when it comes to foundation design regardless of the WTG-manufacturer, model, size, power or soil conditions. Thanks to internal R&D-Team with senior engineers, holding over 100 years of cumulated experience in the design of wind turbine foundations, nothing is impossible.

La Richardais (FRA) – In 2019 Developers worldwide have globally commissioned a little over 45GW of onshore wind turbines. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Danish firm Vestas remained this way the world’s leading wind turbine supplier, with Spanish-German wind engineering company Siemens Gamesa a strong second. Chinas manufacturer number one Goldwind was third in the rankings, while US-Leader GE Renewable Energy’s secured its fourth place. Together the top four manufacturers accounted for 55 percent of the market share.

100 years of cumulated experience

This statement applies more or less also to CTE Wind, which calculated, designed and evaluated about 5000 WTG-foundations in 2019 around the globe. Thanks to CTE Wind’s internal R&D, with senior engineers holding over 100 years of cumulated experience in the design of wind turbine foundations worldwide, new turbine models from the top manufacturers as well as less common WTG-models from smaller or local manufacturers are only a little challenge. CTE Wind engineering services lead to state-of-the-art foundation solutions for wind turbines. Regardless of whether it is a prototype, such as GE’s giant 12 MW Haliade X or smaller 1 MW machine, from German ENO or Dutch EWT.

Wooden tower

Also worth mentioning: the different types of towers for wind turbines. Concrete (hollow foundation) and steel towers are well known to CTE Wind. Both tower systems are suitable to be used alone or in combination. Even foundations with wooden towers were calculated and designed by CTE Wind in the past. The sum of all experiences made during the projects since 2003 is the reason why their engineering services in foundation design are the first choice for wind turbine manufacturers, wind park developers and EPC contractors worldwide.

The most common foundation scenario for concrete towers features a cellar. Since 2010, CTE Wind has provided foundation solutions for concrete towers in different variants. One such foundation solution is the hollow foundation solution.

One critical factor to be considered in a wind farm project is the type of wind turbine tower.  There are primarily two categories of wind turbine towers available in the market: tubular steel and concrete tower. The mix of both types is a hybrid tower. Independent from the selected tower system, the increased prevalence of higher hub heights leads to larger tower bases which challenges the tower manufacturers to develop new solutions or systems.

In addition to the various pros and cons of tubular steel versus concrete to be considered, the choice of the tower has an impact on the foundation. A steel tower nowadays almost always comes with an anchor cage. On the other hand, concrete towers need a tensioning system usually using cables anchored in the foundation. CTE Wind Civil Engineering has provided solutions for concrete towers in different variants for the last 11 years and counting.

Let us take a closer look at the different parts of the concrete tower foundation:

Foundation design of the outer shape

Like the toes and the ball of your feet, the outer shape prevents the wind turbine from tipping over. The foundation for concrete towers can be designed as standard gravity or deep foundation with piles. To save resources, CTE Winds Soft-Spot® solution (patent pending) or a ribbed (star) foundation could also be applied. Moreover, working with different tower manufacturers requires consideration for further variable construction criteria. CTE Wind is specialized in its knowledge and experience in factoring in said variables, such as the pre-stressed or post-tensioned cable system.

The foundation from inside

The most common concrete tower foundation scenario from the inside point of view features a cellar where cables are anchored and cable tensioning tools are placed. This kind of solution is often referred to as a “Hollow Foundation Solution” as shown in the picture. This design has a cellar to allow for access into the foundation and to tension the anchor cables of the tower. The reinforcement design for the hollow foundation solution is also substantially different from that of standard gravity foundations. Besides the customized interior formwork, special attention has to be paid to the design of the anchoring bulkheads where concentrated loads are applied to the concrete in very limited spaces.

Another option to anchor the tower to the foundation is to install protruding bolts out of the pedestal and into the tower where the cables can be connected. In this solution, the cellar is not necessary. The bolts are easy to access for tensioning. Lastly, and more seldomly used, is the combination of the concrete tower and foundation into a monolithic structure where only classic reinforcements are used but no tensioning elements are needed.  This type of solution can unfortunately lead to concrete cracks at the bottom tower section.

If you want to learn more about CTE Wind International and CTE Winds CONCRETE TOWER FOUNDATIONS SOLUTION please visite OUR-PROJECTS & OUR-NEWS – sections. For more Information about OUR-SERVICES please CONTACT US.

CTE Wind’s engineering team is working on different wind projects in Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa and Saudi-Arabia. And not for the first time ! The WTG foundation experts can look back on 15 years of project history in these regions.

La Richardais FRA – Wind projects all over Africa and Middle East are ramping up. The Global Wind Energy Council foresees wind energy capacity reaching over 3GW by the end of 2023 in South Africa, but according to the IEA, Sub-Saharan Africa alone offers a wind energy potential of 1,300 GW.

Foundation Expertise

As a matter of fact, CTE Wind has been requested to support different European and Arabian customers for their wind projects in Africa and the Middle East. Projects in South-Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt and Saudi-Arabia are currently in CTE Wind’s pipeline. The engineering office provided many times its wind turbine foundation expertise over the last 15 years in North and South Africa. As of 2021, CTE Wind designed, value-engineered or peer-reviewed foundations of 2700 wind turbines within 76 projects. The services vary from geotechnical consulting, to preliminary and detailed foundation design, as well as forensic engineering for existing wind farms, without forgetting the third-party verification (CAT3) task.

First African Project

CTE Wind has worked regularly in Morocco but also in other countries of Africa and the Middle East.

In 2008 CTE Wind had its first wind project for a project in North-Africa. The expert in foundation design for wind turbine foundations designed gravity bases for 131 Siemens machines in the Tarfaya wind park, located in Southern Morocco. Then came the Ashegoda wind farm in Ethiopia, the Kabertene wind park project in Algeria, the Balikesir wind farm in Turkey and the Nojoli wind park in South Africa

Bigger Wind Parks

In 2016 CTE Wind has been awarded the wind park in Ras Ghareb, Egypt, with 125 wind turbines.

The Ombepo wind farm in Namibia came later. In Saudi Arabia, the trouble shooting work was done successfully for the Dumat Al Jandal wind park with 99 positions. A new project in the country has just been awarded to CTE Wind.

This short list gives a quick overview as to where CTE Wind’s expertise in wind turbine foundation in Africa and the Middle East has been requested.

CTE wind is more confident than ever to work on any wind projects from South-Africa to the Middle East region. Get in touch if you need further information about foundation expertise and services.

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About CTE Wind

About CTE Wind – Experts in Foundation Design World Wide:We serve since 2003 the wind industry as civil / structural engineers for wind park owner, developers and EPC/BoP-contractors. Often also directly for the OEMs. 25000 wind turbines in 73 countries. We provide geotechnical services, preliminary and final designs for wind turbine foundations, repowering and life time extension services.