Solutions
New build
Installing the next generation of onshore and offshore turbines, where conventional cranes and heavy-lift vessels are running out of capacity.
The bottleneck
Onshore, towers are getting taller, components heavier, and sites harder to reach, so the crane and the civil works it needs keep growing. Offshore, nacelles are approaching 1,000 tons. The cranes and Wind Turbine Installation Vessels (WTIVs) that can serve modern projects are scarce, expensive, and slow to mobilize. Only about five vessels worldwide can lift a 15 MW nacelle (over 1,000 tons, above 150 meters) for both installation and component replacement, and they are booked on new builds.
Onshore is no easier. The cranes that lift 100 tons to 10 meters are common; the cranes that lift the same load to 100 meters and beyond are bigger lattice crawlers, trucked in and assembled on site, and rarer. Project schedules wait on equipment that does not exist in enough quantity to keep up with installed-capacity targets.
How CLS Wind helps
The CLS Wind platform scales linearly with height: a platform sized for the load reaches 100, 200, or 300 meters by adding chord sections, with no step up to a larger capacity class. Onshore, a small commodity crane lifts components to about 10 meters and KINKA LIFT™ carries the rest of the lift. Offshore, ORCA LIFT™ operates from a sub-1,000-ton crane vessel with a sub-100-meter boom, drawn from the widely amortized fleet of offshore oil and gas vessels rather than the handful of bespoke WTIVs.
The platform principle is the same in both: the vertical loads go into the foundation rather than the tower, through structural chords into the foundation, monopile, or floater. Once fastened to the platform, a component is carried, not suspended, so it cannot swing on the climb. The crane lift is only to low level, which reduces pendulum effects there and widens the operational weather window.
Which platform to ask for
- Onshore new build: KINKA LIFT. Configured per turbine. Designs already delivered for 2.7 MW Siemens Gamesa, 4.2 MW Vestas, and 6.1 MW GE Vernova platforms. 48% lower modeled installation cost than crane-based operations.
- Fixed offshore new build: ORCA LIFT. Third-party load modeling by Arup for a 15 MW reference turbine. ABS Approval in Principle.
- Floating offshore new build: ORCA LIFT, floating variant. Independent load modeling by Kent Engineering on a 15 MW three-column semi-submersible.