Around the world, governments and energy companies are investing heavily in electricity generation. In countries like China and India, billions of people are now getting the chance to enjoy luxuries that others take for granted: air conditioning, fridges, TVs and microwaves, all of which require electricity. As these countries’ economies grow, new sources of power are needed not just by consumers, but by the manufacturers that support so much of their development.
In more mature energy markets, the problem isn’t just increasing demand, but changing attitudes to how energy should be generated and supplied. On 26 June, the US House of Representatives voted narrowly in favour of the Waxman-Markey American?Clean Energy and Security bill. If the bill passes a Senate vote, it will be the first time the country has legislated to limit carbon emissions. New regulations like this don’t restrict the amount of energy a country will use, but they do force energy users and suppliers to change how energy is provided. As drivers move slowly over to using electric vehicles, the power to fill their batteries will have to come from somewhere. At the power plant, high carbon emitting technologies will need to be replaced by cleaner new technologies.
The US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook for 2009 suggests that between 2006 and 2030, world energy consumption will rise by 44%, from 472 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2006 to 552 quadrillion Btu in 2015 and then to 678 quadrillion Btu in 2030.
The growth in demand will be most pronounced in countries outside of the 30 mainly high income countries that form the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: in non-OECD states, growth in demand is predicted to increase by 73%, while within the OECD the EIA expects it to increase by 15%.
Not all of this increased demand will be for electricity, but a substantial chunk of it will be. In the world’s fastest growing emerging economies, the need for new electricity generation is soaring. The EIA predicts that China will increase its installed generating capacity by 4.8% every year between 2006 and 2030, from 2,773bn kWh to 8,547bn kWh. In India too, installed capacity will soar, at 3.8% a year, to 1,687bn kWh in 2030, from 691bn kWh. Even mature markets like the USA and Australia will increase their overall capacity by 1%–2% a year, on top of replacing dirty technologies with new clean generating methods.
All of this new generating capacity will need new cranes. Both Wolffkran and Wilbert have recently launched new luffing jibs aimed at this market, and argue that these cranes are the best for the job. Manitowoc argues that the right combination of trolley jib cranes can perform equally well, if not better.
Wolffkran CEO Peter Schiefer knows the electricity generating business well, after spending many years working for Siemens. In April, the company launched its heaviest luffing jib yet, the 1250 B, aimed squarely at customers working on power generation projects.
Schiefer says, “When you look at a large number of countries now, their power demands have risen significantly over the last couple of years. Sooner or later, that will lead to blackouts. There are some countries that are in the forefront of building new generating capacity, but there are more that still need to start projects.”
Schiefer says, “You experience higher loads at power plant construction projects than on any other sort of application. If you compare these jobs to high rise residential, commercial or industrial jobs, the other applications are far less demanding in terms of the load to be lifted. On power plant construction jobs, it’s not just the load you’re lifting in the inner area, but out to the end of the jib: anything you touch is going to be heavy.
“In a number of applications, you can get away with using trolley jib cranes. But, when you look at how power plants are built—not deck-by-deck, but with different areas of the site built first across a wide radius—a trolley jib would need an enormous freestanding height, in order to be able to move around the site. Anything and everything is heavy.”
Gérard Vezant, Manitowoc sales director of special application cranes, argues that by choosing the right combination of cranes, trolley jib cranes are the equal of luffers: “There are often two elements. Take nuclear power plants, for example. A company may choose to use a special application tower crane to build the reactor, while smaller tower cranes will build the cooling towers.
“On the construction of a new nuclear power station at Flamanville in northern France our company supplied a Potain MD 3200 to build the reactor and there are several other Potain tower cranes on the project helping the remainder of the construction. The contractor on the project, Bouygues, chose the MD 3200 because the company needed to place 40t loads at a 60m radius.”
Carlos Monteiro, Manitowoc senior product manager for tower cranes, adds, “The cranes used on the cooling towers could be from a range of cranes, sometimes contractors use luffing jib cranes and sometimes they use saddle jib cranes. Potain has a range of cranes from our MD, MR and MDT lines that can often been found in this type of work.”
The competition to service this sector isn’t just between two types of tower cranes, but between towers and mobile or crawler cranes. Schiefer says, “You’re heading the same way on refinery jobs, but on those sites you’re not working as high up. On power plants, you can be lifting very heavy loads 120ft up. That goes to the question of competition with crawlers. Crawlers can reach those heights, but they can’t manoeuvre inside some areas on the site. A tower crane can serve all areas.
“Refineries are more widespread: you have space to assemble and disassemble a big crawler crane and it’s easier to move the crawler around. On a power plant, you may argue that the crane is staying quite a long time, so why does assembly time matter? The question is, how do you disassemble the crane once the job is finished?”
It depends on how the job is planned, Vezant says. “On the job in Flamanville, Bouygues is building the reactor in stages. But in other instances, companies may choose a single large crane to lift the reactor in one piece. It generally depends on local preferences, site set-up, availability of cranes etc. There are many factors that can influence the choice of cranes. But in general, Potain special application cranes are a very cost effective way to construct power stations and they have a strong proven record in this respect.”
A few weeks after Wolffkran launched the 1250 B, Wilbert launched its own very heavy luffing jib crane, the WT 1905L e.tronic. Franz-Rudolf Wilbert, general manager, says, “Our power plant customers forced us to develop the WT 1905L e.tronic because they kept asking for a crane with higher load capacities. During the development of the heavy lifter series we were working together in close collaboration with our customers. So, the entire crane is geared to the needs of a power plant and fulfils them ideally.”
Wilbert sales manager Günter Kronewitter adds, “All power station lifts are heavy lifts.”
Wilbert says, “A luffing jib crane is able to avoid every barrier thanks to its height adjustable jib. Compared to a trolley jib crane a luffer has a considerably shorter counter jib which is another advantage. Considering the ground of the job site, a luffer needs much less space than a mobile crane or a crawler crane.
“Crawler cranes have high demands for ground bearing pressure, that can cause high cost to the job site. Crawler cranes have to stop working a lot earlier in times of wind. Laying down their jib means that crawler cranes need a lot of space which is very limited on every jobsite. According to that procedure, you need only a few minutes to stop working with a luffer.”
While the demands of this sort of job are considerable, they are at least predictable. Schiefer explains that power plant designs are, essentially, standardised: “There are two types of power plants being built around the world. Some countries are beginning to move to build more nuclear power plants, but the designs they are using are all fairly similar. The rest are coal-fired, and again, while they may look different, they all follow the same design pattern. We know the sizes and pieces we’re going to need to be able to lift.”
Wilbert explains, “On power plant sites, all lifts are pre-planned and the components-to-move are geared to the crane operating there.”
Despite the challenges the new generation of very heavy luffers have been designed to meet, they aren’t tailor-made or alternative lifting systems, but a natural evolution of both companies’ existing ranges. Schiefer says, “What is fascinating for me is that it doesn’t look like such a big crane, for what it can do. It uses virtually the same technology we’re using in some of our smallest cranes. In terms of spare parts and staff experience, you don’t require anything new.
“The power system it uses is 20 years old. The big winch can be put into one of our smaller luffers, if you need to take extra rope or to have more power. The components are very interchangeable. For customers, they know it’s going to work. If a part does fail, you don’t need something new, the parts will be in stock. If you can deal with the smaller Wolffs, you can deal with the 1250 B.
“What’s gone into the design of the 1250 B is our experience of building luffers and of making them easy to assemble. The new 1250 B is as easy to assemble as our much smaller 335 B. It follows the same design pattern as the entire Wolff range: there’s the same modular system for the machinery housing and counterjib. The weight and dimensions of all of the components are, for this type of machine, still very low.”
Manitowoc’s Vezant too looks to his company’s track record: “Potain special application cranes from 1,100tm to 3,200tm are well suited to power station construction. Certainly our company has one of the best reputations in this industry with a history of dozens of successful projects behind us.
“Our cranes use high performance, proven hoist mechanisms which are well-liked for these applications. Potain is well known for its winch technology and has a strong record in innovation in this field.
“Our mast sections on our special application cranes have rounded corners which makes them more aerodynamic than the regular straight angle mast sections on other cranes, and therefore capable of greater free-standing heights.”
Schiefer says Wolffkran plans to develop new cranes in this range. “We’re going to close the gap between the 1250 B and our smaller luffers. The way the 1250 B is designed, we could make a much bigger machine to the same design pattern. If that change was required by customers, we would be ready to go; but, from the discussions we are having with customers around the world, we’re not seeing the need for a bigger crane yet.”
Wilbert is ready to go further too. “Our WT 1905L e.tronic is the first crane of the heavy lifter series and it will be supplemented with further cranes with both lower and higher capacity,” it says. ”The demand for higher and stronger cranes is unstopped. When these cranes are available, the corresponding projects are coming automatically. We are sure that there will be even stronger cranes than our WT 1905L e.tronic in the future.” Kronewitter adds, “As higher and higher free-standing tower heights are asked to be reached, we are currently developing a stronger tower system as well as stronger cross frames, undercarriages and movable portals to be able to meet these requirements as well.”
Demand for both new cranes is strong. Schiefer says that he expects double figure orders this year, with more to come. Wilbert says that as well as local orders in Germany, his company has orders from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria; Kronewitter adds that he is working on inquiries from Switzerland and Eastern Europe.
Power plants aren’t the only sites that will see these giant towers. Wilbert reckons that there will be demand for big, strong, cranes from other job sites when the economy rebounds. Kronewitter suggests that there will also be demand for the cranes on high rise buildings.
Schiefer says that there is a lot more potential for the cranes: “We’ve had a lot of interest from the power plant construction sector, but there are other applications for this sort of crane. There are a lot of more structurally complex buildings being designed that require this size of crane. For example, Westfield’s big shopping development in London, White City, had two Wolff 900 B luffers on site. It was a fairly low site, but the structural design required big cranes. This type of work, whether it‘s driven by architectural requirements, or by structural complexity, will require big cranes.
“The 1250 B is very suitable for shipyard or harbour applications. It’s a cheap alternative to very expensive purpose built cranes.”
