Page 348 - Fluid Power Engineering

308 Chapter Fourteen

Setbacks from public roads, water bodies, inhabited struc-

tures, transmission lines, and property boundaries
Setbacksfromexclusionareaslikeendangeredspecieshabitat,

wetlands, and others
Setbacks from microwave Fresnel zones, airports, radars, and

other telecommunications links
With above preliminary micrositing of turbines, the process of
infrastructure civil engineering can begin. The steps include:

Land survey of the property of interest to delineate prop-

erty boundary accurately, specify elevation contour lines to a
higher degree of precision, and identify features on the prop-
erty like transmission lines, roads, water bodies, vegetation,
and others. With this information, areas of higher slopes are
either marked as exclusion areas or turbines placed in these
areas are moved to alternate locations.
Site visit by the civil engineering team, wind energy modeling

team, and landowners. The intent is to assess the suitability of
each proposed wind turbine site with respect to access roads,
drainage, turbine foundation, crane walk and crane pad, and
proximity to exclusion areas. In addition, collection system
(transmission inside the wind farm) and substation layout,
entrance from public roads into the wind farm, fencing and
security, and other related aspects are assessed. Landowner’s
preferences related to agriculture and other needs are
assessed.
Transportation planning involves evaluation of public trans-

portation infrastructure and its ability to support transporta-
tion of equipment for the wind project. In most locations, the
public road infrastructure is unable to support the weight and
width of the loads, and turn radius. A site visit can provide
data to design the necessary changes.
Geotechnical study for testing of subsurface soil conditions at

each turbine location. Soil testing involves boring holes to col-
lect samples. Foundation design typically requires sampling
at four boreholes that are 30–50 ft deep, depending on the tur-
bine and type of foundation. Three holes are bored at vertices
of an equilateral triangle and one hole is bored at the center.
The samples are analyzed for soil characteristics.
Design of all the infrastructure components. In this step, all

the access roads, drainage, turbine erection crane pads, and
crane walk areas are designed. The following is an illustra-
tive example of the type of infrastructure required for a wind
farm: 2