April 10 - ALE has completed its work in the West Coast 1 project - a major onshore wind farm being developed by Aurora Wind Power in South Africa's Western Cape.
As part of the project, which is located approximately 50 km from Saldanha Bay Port, ALE was contracted to handle the port operations, unloading, transportation and installation preparation of 47 wind turbines.
At the port ALE utilised one 250-tonne capacity crawler crane, one 90-tonne capacity mobile crane, one 40-tonne capacity mobile crane, one telehandler and three trailers to discharge the cargo from the vessel.
Four axle lines of extendable trailers were then used to transport the blades to the site, while eight axle lines were used for the towers and nacelles.
On site the wind turbine components were unloaded and positioned by ALE, ready for the main installation using a mobile crane and telehandler.
Christo van der Merwe, account manager for ALE's South African branch, said: "The wind energy market is a particularly busy industry for us and the region as a whole. We have been continually awarded project work within this sector across South Africa and have been involved in eight wind energy projects. The future of projects in the wind sector is promising."
