Crushing proves a breeze at Scottish wind farm
GLASGOW-based specialist plant hirers and earthworks contractors AB2000 are using two Extec C 12 track-mounted mobile crushers in preparatory works for what is scheduled to become Europe’s largest onshore wind farm when it comes online next year.
The project, a joint venture between Morrison Construction and Balfour Kilpatrick, known as MBK Whitelee, involves the construction of 140 wind turbines, each standing 100m tall, on 50 sq km of moorland near East Kilbride, 15km south of Glasgow.
The 322MW Whitelee wind farm is part of Scotland’s goal to derive 40% of the country’s electrical power from renewable sources by 2020.
Situated on Lochgoin Moor, which rises to 330m above sea level, the wind farm site is covered in a thick layer of peat up to 12m deep in places. A key part of the preparatory works is the stabilization of the ground with rock won from a nearby quarry or one of a series of local borrow pits created by MBK using equipment provided by AB2000.
Each of the borrow pits is approximately 1ha in area with a face height of around 10m. Here the igneous rock is blasted weekly and crushed to a 125mm grade by a new Extec C 12+ unit. To date, this machine has produced around 1 million tonnes of crushed rock. Meanwhile, in the main quarry, AB2000 employ an older Extec C 12 track-mounted mobile crusher to produce around 2,000 tonnes of rock per day.
According to AB2000’s Alastair Robb, Whitelee wind farm is one of the largest contracts AB2000 have ever worked on. ‘This is one of the most prestigious projects we’ve been involved with, so it was imperative that everything worked smoothly,’ he said.
‘Both of our Extec machines are responsible for supplying the wind farm project with high-quality sub-base material that is stable enough to bear a 500-tonne load and has the free-draining properties required to meet the exacting standards of the project. The two machines have performed superbly in a very hostile environment and have proved that they are one of the best crushers on the market.’
