A Terex CC 8800-1, augmented with a Boom Booster, has been used to erect a turbine at the largest wind farm in the Netherlands.
The crawler crane, which was deployed at the site by Dutch lifting specialist, Sarens, lifted a selection of the ENERCON E-126 wind turbine’s components, including a 170-tonne nacelle, a 260-tonne generator, and a 375-tonne hub.
In order to achieve the required lift height of 135m, the CC 8800-1 was fitted with Terex’s Boom Booster system, which increased the length of the crane’s main boom to 138m. An extra 18m extension was then added to give a total boom system length of 156m.
“It’s as if the kit had been designed specifically for our project at Windpark Noordoostpolder,” said Sarens’ project manager, Hendrik Sanders.
“It couldn’t have been any easier. Sure, the Boom Booster kit is about 50% heavier than the CC 8800-1 crane’s standard boom, but the way it was designed made self-assembly possible with the Superlift.
“The setup time was pretty close to what the standard boom would have taken anyway,” he added.
Sarens’ client, ENERCON, had requested a Terex CC 9800 lattice boom crane, but the unit was not available at the time due to the crane firm’s heavy workload. Instead, Sarsens offered the customer its CC 8800-1 crawler in combination with a Boom Booster kit to make the lift possible.
“With the crane set up like that, the rest was simply a routine job,” said Cedric Debauche, one of two Sarens operators who used the augmented CC 8800-1 crawler.
“As far as we’re concerned, the Boom Booster passed the test with flying colours,” added Sanders.
“It has a compact design that makes it possible to handle enormous loads with long boom systems,” he concluded.
