Huge Job Transporting Windmills

Have you ever driven past one of those windmill farms, where giant fans live on breezy hills and turn frighteningly fast? If so, have you ever wondered how they got the windmills up there in the first place?

Well, an article in the January 2011 issue of Sun & Wind Energy magazine talks about the incredible logistics (and cost) of moving the pieces, which can weigh 120 tons and, in the case of the fan blades, stretch nearly 400 feet long.

Andreas Petzold, a delivery expert at Nordex Energy, says transportation cost can run 6 to 10 percent of the cost of the installation. That would include hiring cranes and special equipment to get the pieces around sharp mountain road corners and precisely through old tunnels.

Whew! Download the whole story here.