WorldWide deMAnd for windmills is rising rapidly as countries take up power generation from renewable energy. These hi-tech, modern day equivalents of one of the world’s oldest technologies are making a significant contrib-ution in the battle against climate change.

Top ten business supplier, Nordex of Germany, has formed a new partnership with Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, together with Dako Worldwide Transport, Dusseldorf, and UTC Overseas of Atlanta, to ship 25 such wind energy systems from Bremerhaven in Ger-many to Baltimore on the eastern seaboard of the US.

“The world market for wind turbines has grown by 34% in the past three years; but we have grown by 54% in this period,” explains Sandra Jaekel of Nordex.

“Europe is still the biggest market but the Americas, particularly the US and Canada, will see a rapid increase over the next five years. The other big area of growth is Asia, especially China and India.”

The WWL service to Baltimore offers Nordex a route to enter the US market as part of its three-continent growth strategy. The 25 turbines, broken down into their major compo-nents, are all scheduled to be shipped by the end of this year.

And it is not just the tight time scale that presents a shipping challenge, according to Abu Nasser, Manager Sales & Marketing, WWL Europe.

“Quite apart from the 44-metre long blades, which we have to handle separately, each wind energy system consists of a number of differ-ent large components which have to be loaded and then stowed and lashed under the deck.

“The project is very focused on the optimum stowage of the components on the roll trailer. For instance, the drive-train is 5.95 metres long and weighs 45.5 tonnes. In order to save time and cost, the customer asked if we could ship two pieces on each trailer.

“So now we have a 90-tonne loaded trailer which we need to lift and then roll onto the vessel. Obviously the operations team had to check this was achievable before we could give a definite okay.

“The blades themselves are not only very long but also very delicate, so they have to be fitted in a transport frame which is spe-cific to the cargo. And they have to be lifted with two cranes which needs a great deal of skill and concentration from the operations team. This is where our competence and experience with over-sized cargo is put to the test.”

WWl hAs Worked closely on overcom-ing these challenges with Dako Worldwide Transport and UTC USA. Added value services at the dockside have been provided by steve-dores, Atlantik Hafenbetriebe.

“Because of road transport height restric-tions, Nordex delivered the nacelles and cool-ing hoods from Rostock separately,” explains Nasser. “Working with Nordex personnel and in close cooperation with Atlantik, these hoods were mounted at the dockside after the cargo was stowed on the roll trailer.”

Given such a complex operation, it was not surprising that Nasser, plus the WWL port manager Volker Freese and teams from both Nordex and Dako Worldwide, were all at Bremerhaven to see the first shipment being successfully loaded in a very professional and smooth operation.

“The whole process provided by WWL for the first shipment was very convincing,” com-ments Jaekel. “We were happy with the quick and safe handling of our components and we can easily imagine further cooperation.”

With world energy prices still close to record highs, it seems more and more consumers should get used to the idea that renewable energy, and especially windmills, are the future.

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A 90-tonne loaded trailer is lifted and then rolled on to the weather deck of the vessel when moving the 44-metre-long blades of the windmills.

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