San Francisco port handles wind turbine parts

San Francisco port handles wind turbine parts    The Port of San Francisco received a load of used wind turbine components this week at its Pier 80 Omni Terminal.
   San Leandro, Calif.-based Halus Power Systems imported wind tower sections, blades, nacelles, hubs and other parts for three complete wind turbines, which were purchased from a wind farm in Germany. The parts moved breakbulk and containerized, in flat-rack and open-top containers that were offloaded using the port's gantry cranes.
   The wind turbines will be remanufactured at Halus Power's San Leandro plant near Oakland. One has already been sold to the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Ohio; another will be installed at a farm near Ellensburg, Wash.
   Louis Rigaud, Halus Power's general director, said 0.5-megawatt windmills were considered state-of-the-art and the largest in the world in the mid-1990s. 'Today the standard is 2-3 megawatt wind turbines at the large industrial wind farms,' he said. 'The older models are being cleared out of wind farms in Germany and Denmark to make way for the newer models, but the older models are still more than adequate for smaller-scale users such as businesses and large farms.'
   Pier 80, operated by Metro Ports, is a 70-acre facility that includes over nine acres of covered storage.