
The Adriaticborg arrived on November 2, 2011 to discharge wind turbine parts
loaded in Aarhus, Denmark. She brought 15 hubs, 3 power units and one 20 foot container; the cargo was loaded in Aarhus, Denmark for Siemens. Wind turbine technology keeps advancing. These hubs are bigger than earlier ones and they have to be plugged in at almost all times so bearings inside do not go flat during transit. As soon as the cranes dropped each hub at Lake
Superior Warehousing this morning, they were plugged into an electrical connection prepared by the warehouse. The power slowly moves the inside around, keeping the bearings smooth. Earlier nacelles came here in August with radiators to cool off a new type of motor inside. Odd; all this stuff requires electricity; wind mills aren’t what they used to be!
We haven’t had any shipments of wind turbine blades in the port for more than a year, but we have had some stored on the ground from past deliveries over at Lake Superior Warehousing Company at the Port Terminal. Today (Thursday, September 8, 2011), the last of those were loaded onto trucks.They will take them to wind farms in Illinois. During the time they have been stored here, they have actually been sold to new customers, rather than the customers who originally ordered them. Delays, construction issues and the poor economy have kept the wind turbine business in flux. (Click pic for larger version)
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| The Federal Power brought wind turbine pieces from Denmark, arriving in Duluth on June 8, 2011. Top left, you see 3 wind turbine molds on the ship’s weather deck. At right, on Thursday, June 9, the Port Terminal’s 2 gantry cranes discharged them onto a special service truck (top right). Below, the truck slowly moved each piece out of the warehouse yard and made the wide turn onto the road that led them to the other side of the Port Terminal where they were carefully laid down. (Click any picture for larger version) |
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| On Friday, work continued bring pieces from the ship’s cargo holds. Above, 3 hubs can be seen with one nacelle in the foreground and some of the 150 containers also loaded onto the ship in Denmark. Below, in the engine room, engineers did some work on the big diesel engine that powers the ship. |
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At the left, on Monday morning, April 25, one of the Port Terminal cranes is pulling one of the 100 power units brought here by the BBC Oregon for Siemens. Power units contain the brains of the wind turbine, calculating the many variables, like the wind, that are checked to make adjustments to the turbine, such as the pitch of the blades.
Yesterday, on a sunny Sunday Easter morning, the BBC Oregon arrived in port with a shipment of wind turbine parts loaded in Aarhus, Denmark. After discharging the parts (nacelles, power units, hubs and containerized equipment), destined to go by truck to Adair, Iowa, she will load wheat at the CHS terminal in Superior.