The company said the towers are for 140 turbines destined for the Greater Gabbard Wind Turbine Park off the coast of England. The towers will be transported in 36 shipments on board the BBC Konan.
Flour, the wind farm's developer, requested that the nacelles be mounted with hubs, and the bottom tower sections be shipped with the electronics installed prior to the shipment. This meant that the tower sections could not be shipped lying down, but had to be transported upright on custom-made transport foundations.
'Up until now, this has only been done on a barge in this way,' said Christine Schou Jensen, logistics manager in BBC's wind turbine office in Aarhus, Denmark. She noted that there will be some restrictions to this application due to weather and sailings.
The BBC Konan will sail in a shuttle service between Esbjerg, Denmark, and Harwich, U.K., through November, and then again from February/March to September 2010. The Greater Gabbard Wind Turbine Park is expected to be completed by 2011 and have the capacity to produce enough electricity to power 415,000 homes.
