December 2 - Heavy transportation specialist Daco Heavy Lift de Centroamerica has recently completed wind farm projects in Panamá, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and in its domestic market of Guatemala.
According to Daco Heavy Lift, the shipment of wind turbine equipment to a project site in Viento Blanco, Guatemala, was particularly challenging.
The park is constructed on the slopes of the active volcano Pacaya, which is situated between Guatemala City and the Pacific coast, close to the town of Palin.
Seven wind turbines had to be transported to the project site, with blades measuring 55 m long. The turbines were moved from Port Puerto Quetzal to Palin along a well-developed stretch of highway.
A 10 km long mountain road, with steep gradients and narrow curves, had to be negotiated to reach the final project site in the village of San Vicente Pacaya. Daco Heavy Lift was unable to reach the site using conventional extendible trailers, and the reconstruction of road infrastructure was prohibitively expensive.
Daco Heavy Lift utilised a Goldhofer blade lifter to help traverse the mountain pass. The company claims to be the first in the region to operate a hydraulic blade lifter.
In Palin, each blade was reloaded onto the Goldhofer trailer before being hauled to the final San Vicente Pacaya site.Since many wind power generating plants in Central America are situated in mountainous areas, Daco Heavy Lift is convinced that there will be more opportunities to use this sophisticated equipment for future projects.
