Today, the Port of Vancouver USA is offloading a wind turbines shipment that includes the longest wind turbine blades moved on the West Coast of North America. The turbines are headed for Canada to fulfill a new $325 million wind project from project owner Potentia Renewables and turbine manufacturer Goldwind Americas. The turbines and related components were received on July 22.
The port received a total of nine full wind turbines including blades, nacelles, generators, hubs, tower sections and other sub-components. A previous shipment in May shuttled the first 27 turbines through the Port bound for the Golden South Wind Energy Project in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Eight of Goldwind’s GW155/4.2 MW turbines arrived on the MV Star Kilimanjaro. There are four complete turbines featuring Goldwind’s 76-meter blades, and four additional turbines of the same model with blades will arrive on later shipments. These are the longest blades ever entering the West Coast of the U.S. and the longest blades transported across North America. Measuring nearly 250 ft. in length, the blades are nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
The remaining components on the MV Star include one set of 67-meter wind turbine blades for the same 4.2 MW rated power capacity wind turbine. The project has been in development since 2009 and is located in 34,000 acres of leased agricultural land. The project will consist of 50 turbines each 110 meters tall, an underground electrical collection system, a transformer substation, meteorological towers, operations and maintenance building, new access roads and upgrading of some existing roads. Upon completion, the project will have a generation capacity of 200 megawatt (MW) and is expected to enter into service in 2021. It will generate enough electricity to power 90,000 Saskatchewan homes.
Crews were to have unloaded the blades using the port’s two Liebherr mobile harbor cranes. After unloading, the turbines and their components will be moved to Terminal 5, and will be trucked over the next several months to Saskatchewan.
Potentia Renewables Inc. is owned by Power Energy Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada. It currently has 777 solar and 2 wind projects in full operation, one in Canada and one in Montana. Goldwind Americas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co.
