Collett moves 60 metre blades across Ireland

60 metre blades make their way across Ireland as Collett complete delivery of Meenwaun and Tullahennel wind farms.

After launching our subsidiary company Collett (Ireland) Ltd we’ve been hard at work delivering our first two Irish wind farm projects, and deliveries to both of the wind farm developments are now complete.

With instruction to deliver the 4 GE 2.75MW turbines destined for Meenwaun Wind Farm, near Birr & Tullamore, County Offaly and the 13 GE2.85MW turbines for Tullahennel, County Kerry we mobilised our fleet ready for action.

Using the dimensions of the largest components, the blades, our Teams surveyed each of the routes from Belview Port near Waterford to County Offaly and County Kerry ahead of the movements to ensure safe passage of the loaded vehicles.  Simulating 50m blades for Tullahennel and 60m blades for Meenwaun, our test drive vehicles travelled each of the routes replicating the findings of our reports and identifying street furniture removal, contraflow manoeuvres, tree pruning, lay up areas for driving breaks and pinch points where manual steering would be required.

Tullahennel was the first project to begin and we were portside in Waterford ready to load the first of the components.  Working to a schedule of delivering all the components for one complete wind turbine per week we methodically loaded each of the components and travelled the 235 mile route (377Km) from the port to the development site.  Since all turbine components travelled in convoys under private and Garda escorts, we became a regular sight across the Irish road network.

As one Team continued delivering Tullahennel, our second Team began work on the four turbines destined for Meenwaun discharging the components from the shipside to storage areas within Belview Port.  Once all discharged from the vessel each one would then make the 188 mile route (300Km) from Waterford to Meenwaun southwest of Tullamore County Offaly.

Working in tandem, each Team gradually delivered the components for each complete turbine from the storage area at Waterford to the development site pad locations within the wind parks.

Both wind farms are expected to be fully operational within the coming months with Tullanhennel becoming the first in Europe to integrate a battery into each turbine to store energy and smooth out power flows.  In a recent statement, Microsoft have announced that it has bought all the energy that will be produced by Tullahennel Wind Farm for the next fifteen years for its cloud operations.

With very positive praise on the successful delivery of both Tullahennel and Meenwaun wind farms we look forward to developing our Irish presence further and building a successful business and service levels for our valued clients.