When you are a big producer of Wind Turbines and they grow bigger and bigger year after year. How are you suppose to transport them, from factory, to its intended location? Why not try an airship?

Turbine makers look for airship solutions

The two leading turbine manufacturers are working together to explore the potential benefit of wind power players using airships. Manufacturers transport several thousand blades every year, and with blades measuring up to 80 metres (which is likely to rise) and weighing up to 25 tonnes, transportation is costly both in terms of time and price.

From article, (The two leading turbine manufacturers are working together to explore the potential benefit of wind power players using airships.

Manufacturers transport several thousand blades every year, and with blades measuring up to 80 metres (which is likely to rise) and weighing up to 25 tonnes, transportation is costly both in terms of time and price.

This also poses challenges for drivers navigating winding roads.

 "Turbine components are growing bigger and bigger, and transport is reaching its limits in terms of reaching the most remote areas and areas with complex infrastructure systems," he explained.

"Airships may be a cost-effective alternative to what we have today. Transportation costs are different around the world, and airships may be less sensitive to geography."

Petersen explains Vestas has previously explored other alternatives to traditional road transportation for its turbines, and continues to look at other solutions.

In their invitation, Siemens Gamesa — which for now did not wish to comment on the partnership — and Vestas map out a short-term timeline of the dialogue between the wind and airship industries:

• Vestas and Siemens Gamesa would first brief interested companies about their logistical requirements and invite them to introduce their business.
• By March, the two OEMs would discuss with airship companies how the specific technical requirements — weight and payload, for example — can be met.
• The manufacturers would then internally carry out ‘high-level due diligence’ of the technical and commercial requirements and how they can be met.
• From July, they hope to begin a procurement 

Craig Neal, a post-graduate research student at the University of New South Wales in Australia, analysed the scale of potential cargo airships expected to enter production in the next four years, in industry magazine, the International Airport Review.

Aeroscraft’s ML868, the largest such craft mentioned, would be 235 metres long, 90 metres wide, and 56 metres high with a cargo bay volume of 30,590 cubic metres.

Aeroscraft spokesman John Kiele told Windpower Monthly the ML868 would have a payload of 250 tonnes. The airship successfully completed tethered testing in September 2013, but is not yet operational.

Neal writes that modern and future airships are "well-suited to the transportation of cargo with its reduced priority on speed and the airship’s ability to offer a more cost-effective service".

But current operational designs are currently only capable of lifting cargo of between two and three tonnes — a capacity Petersen describes as "really too little.

Barry Prentice from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Supply Chain Management is the president of ISO Polar Airships, a research institute that promotes the use of airships for sustainable transportation in northern latitudes.

He confirmed the cargo payloads of airships currently in operation — but suggested an upgrade enabling a payload of between 15 and 20 tonnes would be possible if a stable supply of customers would emerge and provide certainty to anxious potential investors.

"Demand has been a problem that has plagued the industry," he says. "The people who might buy, or at least invest in, airships are uncertain about demand, so the possibility of having customers is marvellous."

Prentice, meanwhile, is more optimistic of the rejuvenating role the wind industry could play: "Currently there is not the assurance that there is going to be a market, but I think the wind turbine industry could kick-start this. That is a great economic incentive."

He points out that in Canada, for example, roads in some areas are only accessible on 20 days of the year, posing challenges to maintaining food supply for the country’s more remote communities or establishing grid networks for them. Airships could be used instead of more traditional modes of transportation, he suggests, and could therefore meet other needs.

"You need demand," Prentice explains, "and I don’t think the wind turbine market will slow down."

He estimates building a demonstration airship might cost somewhere between C$25 and C$30 million ($20-$24 million), and possibly "four times as much" to reach the certification stage.

As for how much an airship company might charge per journey, Prentice said there were "too many variables" to say. But he added: "I think it would be fair to say it would be competitive with current systems."

Ernesto Soria, who is in charge of business development at Varialift, boasts the British airship company will complete a demonstration project capable of carrying a 50-tonne payload at altitudes of 30,000 feet at a ground speed of 300km/h — about a third the speed of a commercial passenger aircraft — in two years’ time.

Further, the designs for the $30 million airship could be scaled up to carry 3,000 tonnes, he says.

It would also minimise helium loss — a costly barrier to investors and the industry — by compressing and decompressing the gas to control pressure and prevent it escaping.)

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