Wind Energy Towers: Nordex Exploits Advantages of Concrete

Hamburg, Germany - The costs for the tower of a wind turbine account for up to one fifth of the total costs. Especially in markets with an auction system, it is therefore of great importance to minimize the logistics costs for the tower transport.

For this reason, the Nordex Group relies not only on tubular steel and hybrid towers but also on pure concrete towers that can be produced in mobile productions for parts of its product Portfolio.

Thanks to the mobile concept, production takes place close to the wind farm, so that logistics costs are correspondingly low. Once a wind farm has been constructed, the structural forms and tools can be transported to the next project within the country. Today, Nordex can draw upon 11 such mobile manufacturing facilities worldwide, in Latin America, India, South Africa and Spain. More than 20 mobile “factories” have been set-up in the last few years. On average, some 250 staff are employed on-site with each mobile facility.

Nordex can now look back on 13 years of experience in the manufacture of concrete towers. Recently, a milestone was reached with the 1000th concrete tower. Thanks to the current order backlog for turbines in the AW platform, the Nordex expects to manufacture a further 1000 concrete towers by the end of 2020 alone.

Source: IWR Online, 12 Nov 2019