Civil engineering concept for wind farms: roads, cable routes and areas
Wind farm civil engineering concept: we plan roads, cable routes and construction, foundation and logistics areas, site-appropriate and permittable.
Smart planning starts with infrastructure: we develop site-appropriate concepts for the civil and electrical infrastructure of your wind energy project. We plan roads, cable routes and construction and foundation areas, including temporary logistics areas. We coordinate all elements with each other and visualise them so that the documents for the permit are easy to follow. We think the concept from the access road to the grid export route. To do this, we work closely with our biology team, electrical engineering and other disciplines and plan according to current standards, guidelines and official requirements. This supports permittability. The concept makes it possible to see early where access roads have to be widened, bends opened up or temporary areas created, and whether forest is cleared or terrain altered for this. This feeds into the permit documents and is deepened later in the detailed design.
A civil engineering concept for a wind farm must show early on how much area is needed. Besides the foundation, a wind turbine needs a crane hardstanding, assembly areas and an area for assembling the crane. In addition, there is an access route suitable for heavy transport with large axle loads and lengths, with sufficient width and large curve radii. From a certain number of turbines, a logistics area is also required. Many of these areas are only needed during construction and are removed later. In forest, clearing zones are added, and a safety distance must be observed for assembly with guy winches. The exact dimensions depend on the turbine type. For transport, the clearance profile also counts, because overhead lines and bottlenecks along the route must be considered and lines crossed underneath must be marked.
Also to be considered are the embankments of crane hardstandings, temporary storage for excavated soil at a sufficient distance from the work area, turning areas and lay-bys for long transports, and the handling of crossing lines. The requirements change depending on tower and crane: a hybrid tower with a concrete base, a tubular steel tower, a mobile crane or a tower crane each have different area and road requirements. The subsoil also plays a part: onshore, shallow foundation is the usual foundation type; with difficult ground, soil replacement or piles are needed. Anyone who defines the areas cleanly in the concept can assess interventions in soil, forest and landscape early and compare alternatives.
At the end of the grid export route, the voltage is transformed to the nominal voltage of the respective medium- or high-voltage grid, so the route up to the point of handover is part of the concept. The concept is developed in parallel with the grid concept, the detailed nature conservation surveys and the SEA specialist contributions on noise, shadow, landscape and forestry. In the permitting phase, we deepen it in the civil engineering design of the wind farm infrastructure, followed by the detailed design. For photovoltaics, there is the civil engineering concept for PV plants.
