Siemens to build concrete wind turbine tower, tallest in US

MidAmerican Energy Company has hired Germany’s Siemens (FRA:SIE) to build a concrete tower for one of the 64 turbines that will comprise the 154-MW Adams wind farm in Iowa.

The concrete tower design will allow for the installation of the country’s tallest onshore wind turbine, with a total height, including blades, of 554 ft (165.8 m). The prototype tower will serve as the model for other such structures at future wind projects, the company said in a statement this week

Mike Gehringer, vice president of renewable energy at MidAmerican Energy, commented that there is a big difference between erecting a turbine with a concrete tower and with a steel tower. “Instead of building the tower sections in a factory and transporting them to the site to be fitted together, crews pour the concrete in segments and manufacture the tower onsite,” he explained.

Siemens has sourced the needed concrete from EFCO Corp and supplied the turbine blades for the whole wind farm from its local factory in Ft Madison. This concrete tower project is the first one for Siemens in North America too.

The Adams wind park has already entered its construction phase and is expected to have all of its turbines erected by the end of the year.

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