Photo of the Day: Australia should allow wind turbine blades to be trucked in convoy

This is not a photo taken in Australia, nor would it be likely to be taken here, given that wind turbine blades tend to be transported hundreds of kilometres from port to project at night, one by one, with little or no traffic on the road or adjacent.

But not in China. The photo above was taken by ITK principal and Energy Insiders podcast co-host David Leitch in north China, while on a Silk Road tour. He says it was one of three turbine blades being trucked in convoy along the highway, in the middle of the day.

“I am on a Silk Road tour in northern China, ahead of a Smart Energy Council tour,” he wrote in a message to Renew Economy and later on LinkedIn.

“In our drive today we passed three wind turbine blades moving in a convoy. In Queensland, it’s 1 a week with police escort. I would think 2 a week max in NSW. (That is) hopelessly unproductive when we want to build 3 gigawatts (GW) a year.

“Could we move the blades in convoy? Lowering costs?”

Food for thought for our transport and infrastructure planners. Governments are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in road upgrades to support the transport of blades and other turbine parts in a logistical challenge that can take many many months and cover distances of 500 kms or more.

But they are still allowed just one at a time. There may be a good reason for that. Keen to be enlightened by any experts.

Update: One logistics expert tells us that in Western Australia and South Australia, turbine blades can be transported two at a time.

He also noted that a convoy of 3 turbine blades might sound efficient, it would be “super hard” to clear traffic around 3 x more than 96m loads, and it would take a long time for 3 to manoeuvre tight intersections.

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