Tailor-made logistics and transport services provider Blue Water Shipping has been selected to transport the world’s largest wind turbine blades for Siemens Gamesa. The blades measuring 108 metres in length and weighing 65.6 tonnes per unit have been delivered from Aalborg to Hanstholm. 

Blue Water Shipping said that it managed the loading of the blades in Aalborg, shipped them to Hanstholm on Symphony Provider and unloading upon arrival. The blades are to be used at test centre Østerild which is a testing site for offshore wind turbines onshore to make it easier to perform measurements, services and adjustments before the turbines are placed offshore.

‘Blades of this length have not been handled before, and this underlines the potential for development within the wind sector”, says Patrick Erlandsen from Wind Logistics at Blue Water.

The blades were moved from Hanstholm to Østerild by BMS and Torben Rafn, using the Goldhofer PST/SL-e system to manouver through the roads.

Siemens Gamesa has rolled out the first of the B108 blades during the first quarter of 2021, and subsequently started assembling one of the turbines at the test site in Østerild. The the SG 14-222 DD prototype has been erected at the site in September this year and the 500-ton nacelle that left Brande, Denmark in early October has already been installed. The unit has a capacity of 14 MW and up to 15 MW with Siemens Gamesa’s Power Boost.

The turbine’s 39,000-square-metre swept area is equivalent to approximately 5.5 standard football pitches. It allows the SG 14-222 DD to increase annual energy production by more than 25 per cent compared to the SG 11.0-200 DD offshore wind turbine, which currently is the company’s largest offshore turbine.