AFI provides safe and sustainable work-at-height solutions to the onshore wind industry, which help wind farm owners and operators work towards reducing the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE).
A fleet of over 6,000 MEWPs has working heights up to 75m and covers the whole of the UK and Ireland for routine, planned, preventative or emergency repairs and maintenance.
The Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is the discounted lifetime cost of building and operating a generation asset, expressed as a cost per unit of electricity generated (£/MWh). It covers all the generator's relevant costs, including pre-development, capital, operating, fuel, and financing costs.
The main goal of completing essential maintenance and inspection of wind turbine assets is to get them working as quickly as possible and minimise downtime to maximise energy production.
Powered Access for onshore wind farm and wind turbine projects
Work on wind farms requires sophisticated planning and resources to help complete every job efficiently. At AFI, we work with the client to ensure that they have all the equipment and project management support before the blade maintenance season starts, right through to the end.
More and more, MEWPs are being recognised by contractors and individual service providers as safer, faster, and more stable than traditional rope access for repairing and maintenance work on Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs). This brings efficiencies and cost savings through better quality repairs and reduced working times on each task.
Typical works on blades and wind turbine assets include:
• New blade installations
• New turbine construction and installation
• Planned/Routine/Preventative repair works
• Planned/Routine/Preventative maintenance works
• Emergency and breakdown works
• Blade and wind turbine inspection condition reports
• Blade and wind turbine asset inspections
• Blade performance enhancement works (LEP and VG) to improve efficiency
WTGs focus on two main areas for blade performance, which leads to increased Annual Energy Production (AEP), and AFI provides MEWPs for both:
Leading Edge Protection (LEP) – This is applied to protect the turbine blade's outer section, generating the most power and travelling at speeds up to 200mph. At these speeds, the blade's leading edge will erode due to contact with particles of dirt, dust, water or ice in the air.
Vortex Generators (VG) - These are tiny fins or winglets applied to the turbine blade's inner section (root), nearest the hub, which is turning more slowly. They are designed to improve the airflow over the blade, generating more torque to turn the rotor and generate power.
Each component of the blades and the wind turbine structure needs to be in good condition; this requires the machines to deliver a full schedule of planned work over the blade season.
View our Renewables Support PDF below, or download a copy here.
Popular powered access machines used for renewable projects
Truck Mounted Lifts, TM37, TM38, TM45, TM48, TM51, TM57 & TM75
Telescopic Boom Lifts, BS150DS & BS180DS
Articulating Boom Lifts, BA125DS & BA135DS
Spider Lifts, TR30P, TR30, TR30H, TR31T, TR33H & TR36
Why choose AFI?
AFI's Access Solutions for Renewables can help you reduce costs and improve efficiencies through:
Pre-works detailed survey reports:
An experienced Site Surveyor will recommend the optimum number of machines required to meet the project or season's working at height requirements.The pre-works site survey report will recommend suitable machines, self-propelled MEWPs, operated truck mounts, or spider-lifts based on the project requirements.
Experienced IPAF-licensed machine operators on-site:
An experienced IPAF-licensed machine operator attends the site with each truck-mounted MEWP throughout the project to safely enable the machine's use to its optimum potential. As well as holding an IPAF Licence, which is a recognised working at height standard by the GWO, our Operators also hold Fire Safety, Manual Handling and First Aid training certificates.
Plate load testing:
Plate load testing can be conducted, and ground or multi-mat systems ensure the machine point loads are well within the safety margins for the site or crane pad conditions. The surface area of the multi-mat systems is critical to meet the maximum permissible point loading of the crane pads.AFI's truck-mounted MEWPs provide optimum stability and manoeuvrability and come equipped with mats and baulk timbers to set up in most ground conditions, including rough terrain and uneven ground. Site operators can access remote locations to perform wind turbine repairs and maintenance even on challenging sites.
Lifting attachments:
Lifting attachments are provided on our 37m – 75m truck-mount range for smaller components up to 350 kg, reducing the requirement for additional lifting equipment. We offer trucks with on-board power to the platforms for power tools.
Flexible weather rates:
Weather rates are offered to help complete maintenance and repair work through the summer months to help offset any additional plant hire costs during seasonal and weather-related work suspensions. (conditions apply)Carbon Offsetting & Net Zero goals:
We offer a large fleet of hybrid-powered machines, reducing CO2 emissions, fuel costs and machine downtime. Almost two-thirds of AFI's rental fleet is now 'Green Machines (electric/hybrid), and we have recently invested more than £16m in the electric/hybrid fleet. AFI continues investing in technology that streamlines processes and increases efficiency, enhancing the customer experience and improving the group's environmental impact.When you hire a MEWP with AFI, you can offset 200% of our collections and 100% of our deliveries to the site if you transact with us digitally when ordering and off-hiring equipment.
Read more here:
Safety Days – Best practice & familiarisation:
AFI-Rentals clients receive Pre-season Tool Box Talks workshops on machine familiarisation, emergency lowering procedures, best practice when operating and MEWP safety systems for all operators at one of our 18 national depot locations. These safety days are free of charge to AFI-Rentals clients, and each trainee will receive a Certificate of Attendance.Industry-leading Customer Service:
Fast customer service response times are achieved via various communication channels between the client and the AFI National Service Team. Regional mobile service engineers ensure maximum uptime on the MEWPs, enabling customers to keep the turbines operating.
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