Research on Options for

Wind Turbine Bases

Agenda

1. CSIC Who we are and what we do.

2. Wind Turbine Bases Understanding the Problem.

3. Collaborative Approach Working together to develop solutions.

4. Next Steps For the project, and CSIC.

CSIC Who we are,

and what we do.

Stakeholders

IC family

Vision

champion

innovation &

connect Scotland’s

construction

industry to deliver

transformational

change

9 CORE TEAM

CORE FUNDING

£7.8M

13

UNIVERSITY

PARTNERS

£1.5

EQUIPMENT

CAPITAL

MILLION

LAUNCHED OCTOBER

INDUSTRY LED + DRIVEN

CSIC stats…

100 +

2014

13 HEI partners

Wind Turbine Bases Understanding the problem.

Typical Onshore Wind

Turbine Base

• Repowering (replacing wind turbines) within an existing wind

farm is to replace it with a new concrete base and not re-use

existing foundations

• Capital Expense & Environmental Impact:

o Original bases are left in the ground and covered with topsoil

o A new base is then constructed to take the new (often larger)

turbine

Capital & Environmental

Impact

• Valuable steel and concrete is abandoned in the ground, including

significant embodied energy

• A new excavation is required for each new turbine base, leading to

more habitat disturbance and (often) the excavation of peat (which

generates carbon emissions)

• Current approach necessitates a change to the wind farm layout

• The old turbine bases will become a constraint to future wind farm

layouts (unless a solution is delivered in future to allow new bases to

be installed on top of old ones – this is not currently possible).

Capital & Environmental

Impact

Collaborative

Approach Working together to develop

solutions.

Industry Working Group

• ENGINEERING: Identify concepts in Engineering terms (new bases

and retrofit solutions):

Total Lifespan 60 years

Max Tipping Height to be considered

Engineering design to be based on gravity base system

• COSTS:

Scope the comparative costs to the existing model

Feasibility Study

• MANUFACTURER ENGAGEMENT:

Secure Industry Buy-in leaning on existing networks

• ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:

Identify the environmental benefits

Examine any long term effect of leaving the bases in situ

Feasibility Study

Next Steps For the Project, and CSIC.

Work Packages • Proposals received from members within the Working Group and

responsibilities allocated:

ENGINEERING: ARUP

COSTS: SSE / Scottish Power Renewables

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: University of Glasgow

MANUFACTURER ENGAGEMENT: Scottish Enterprise, SSE &

Scottish Power Renewables

• Initial studies to be delivered between January and February 2017

• Final report collation delivered for sign off March 2017

• Project cash costs will be covered by CSIC, SEPA and SNH, in excess

of £20K

• Collectively all members of the working group are committing

resources and time to deliver objectives

• Project interest?

Potential for future deliverables

Interested in being involved?

Funding

CSIC Hub

Industry’s Innovation Centre

34,000 SQ FT

HAMILTON INTERNATIONAL

TECHNOLOGY PARK

Prototyping + Training

Workshop

Seminar / Training / Event

Space

Open Access Drop In

Collaboration Space

hello@cs-ic.org

0141 212 5250

www.cs-ic.org

@CScotIC

Construction Scotland Innovation Centre

Thank You