Features Cranes
Utilizing cranes in the wind energy sector

As society continually becomes more environmentally cautious and world leaders look to minimize the use of fossil fuels to eliminate greenhouse gases (GHG), renewable energy industries, such as the wind energy sector, have come into the limelight.

Since July 2020, Canada has increased its environmental efforts as well, by installing 50 wind turbines in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan (Sask.) as part of the Potentia Rewnables Golden South Wind Energy Facility. To complete the project, Sarens, a provider of crane rental services, heavy lifting, and engineered transport, collaborated with the client, Borea Construction.

As Assiniboia is in a remote location, nearly 200 kilometers away from the nearest city and 800 kilometers from the Sarens depot, careful planning, engineering, site planning, and preparation were necessary to ensure a smooth operation through summer temperatures of 30°C, and freezing winter temperatures of -35°C.

Each wind turbine at the energy facility has a 110-meter hub height, and for the heaviest lift, the crane was configured to lift 114 tonnes with a 126 meters height and 26-meter radius. For this operation, Sarens used an optimal configuration of main cranes, offload cranes, and tail cranes:

Main cranes:

• LR1600 and CC2800
• LR1600 HSL2DB 126m
• CC2800 SSL/LSL+SGL_S7 126m

Offload cranes:

• AC500
• LTM1400

Tail cranes:

• LR1280, LR1200
• M14000
• LTM 1130

Together with Borea Construction, Sarens completed the lift of the largest rotor assembly ever lifted in Canada to date, with a diameter of 155 meters.

Borea Construction provided rigging, with each main crane rigged-down and rigged up at the next pad within two days. To stay on schedule, crews had to ensure each site was rigged down in a timely manner.