Chile’s Energy Route 2018–2022 is an initiative that hopes to bring together stakeholders in the renewable industry. Following its announcement, Spain’s Acciona was contracted to build four new renewable energy projects in Chile, adding 400 megawatts (MW) across two solar farms and two wind farms.
One of these is the San Gabriel wind farm, located in the municipality of Renaico in the region of La Araucanía. Once completed, San Gabriel will be home to 61 wind turbines, adding 183MW of renewable energy to the grid, with an investment of $300m.
To transport the components, the contractor turned to ALE. Each wind turbine was made of concrete segments, as well as a nacelle, which houses the generator; a hub, to which the blades are attached; and the blades themselves. In total, there were 976 components.
ALE was tasked with unloading the components from ships arriving into Lirquén Port near the city of Concepcion. After receiving the components, they had to be transported some 230km near to the town of Renaico.
The challenge ALE faced was navigating the route from the port to the windfarm site. The sheer size, weight and volume of components meant that the route had to be carefully surveyed and planned. Each nacelle weighed 105 tonnes and each blade weighed 18 tonnes with a length of 65m, making the components difficult to transport on conventional trailers and under standard bridge heights.
