Construction World May 2018

PROJECTS & CONTRACTS

RETURN OF WIND FARMS will reward fleet strategy The long-awaited sign-off of agreements with 27 renewable energy projects will hopefully revitalise South Africa’s efforts to build the green energy sector and enhance power generation capacity, says Johnson Crane Hire sales executive Peter Yaman. “T he construction of wind farms around South Africa created some exciting new programme is expected to bring R56-billion in new investment into the economy over the next two to three years.

Peter Yaman, sales executive at Johnson Crane Hire.

lattice-boom truck-mounted crane with 750 tonne capacity.” He highlights how larger cranes can speed up projects and improve safety on site, by lifting complete equipment instead of smaller, individual parts which would still need to be assembled at height. “The components that make up a wind turbine are mostly large and very heavy, and they need to be lifted to extreme heights,” he says. “We look forward to being able to demonstrate the benefits of larger cranes as more projects are now initiated in the region’s wind energy and the broader renew- able energy sector.” He cautioned, however, that lifting on wind farms has a range of its own challeng- es, many emanating from the high wind factor that naturally characterises the areas where wind farms are established. “Planning is vital in all lifting activities, but is especially important on wind farms,” says Yaman. “For instance, it is often neces- sary to conduct lifts at night because this is when the strength of the wind has dropped to acceptable levels.” He emphasised that as the demand for larger capacity cranes has continued, John- son Crane Hire has kept abreast of the trend by continuing to invest in larger lift capacity. The company has a wide range of cranes in its fleet, including hydraulic, telescopic, lattice-boom crawler and lattice-boom truck-mounted cranes. “Crane hire remains a highly specialised activity, with expensive capital equipment

opportunities for the crane hire sector,” says Yaman, “and Johnson Crane Hire took full ad- vantage to participate in the major wind farm projects to date, both here and in Namibia.” The recent move by new Energy Minister Jeff Radebe to put the department’s Renew- able Energy Independent Power Producer Projects (REIPPP) initiative back on track is intended to re-confirm government’s commit- ment not only to renewable energy but also to its partnership with the private sector. The

“This is good news for the economy, and for versatile and well-equipped operators like us,” says Yaman. “We have constantly upgraded our heavy lift capability, and this has served us well in conducting lifts for wind farms. In particular, we have used a state-of-the-art LTR 11200 hydraulic telescopic narrow-track crawler crane with 1 200 tonne capacity – which is ideal for this application – as well as an LG 1750

Johnson Crane Hire's LTR 11200 crawler crane in action.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MAY 2018