Functionality
The pole, consisting of small pole parts, the machine pod and the rotor blades will be lifted up by a special lifting pod, driving up on an assistment pole assembled around the actual pole. When reaching the top, the parts will then be shifted sidewise and put down hydraulically. The assistment pole is mounted around the pole segments and adapts to the size of the growing pole while the wind turbine is assembled. The assistment pole is mounted on the foundation of the wind turbine or on a base construction, during the whole mounting process, and will be disassemled afterwards. The single wind turbine pole parts are connected to the assistment pole parts, they build a statical unit. The assistment pole elements serve also as transport containers for the wind turbine pole parts, in order to guard them from external damage. The strain from the lifting pod, moving up and down on the assistment pole, is carried by the assistment pole or by a combination of the assistment pole and the wind turbine pole. The vertical forces of the transport, and the guiding forces between lifting pod and assistment pole, which are the highest when lifting the heavy wind turbine pod, are carried completely by the assistment pole.
The highly expensive and extremely weather dependant, common but suboptimal, crane usage, can be completely avoided with this mounting system.
