Front page · Cosyford Wind
The big one: building wind turbines on the ridge
A giant crawler crane, a gusty ridge high above the valley, and the moment at dusk when you pull the lever and she starts to turn.
Each turbine starts with its foundation: swing the crane's concrete skip over the steel in the form and hold to pour, filling it level all over. Then the giant crawler crane lifts each piece of the tower and holds it just above where it goes, swinging on the rope.
Watch the alignment scope, steer the crane to steady the swing (and wait out the gusts), then lower it onto the flange. Clunk! Bolt it down from the inside with the long impact wrench. The tower sections go up, then the nacelle, then for each blade you turn the hub until the empty socket points out level and slide the blade in.
At dusk, pull the big lever. The rotor starts to turn, whooshing round in the evening breeze with the others along the ridge. Every turbine makes clean electricity for a couple of thousand more homes. Gale Whitby has climbed every turbine on the coast and says this is the best ridge of the lot.
