FAE Stories - Menorca
Two MTH 225s work on a solar plant expansion in Menorca
The sunny climate of the Balearic Islands convinces a German company to invest in solar energy
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With 300 days of sunshine each year, the island of Menorca has a typical Mediterranean climate, with long, hot summers and short, mild winters. Especially in the summer, with up to 11 hours of sunshine each day, thousands of tourists from all over Europe flock to the island, creating a sharp rise in energy consumption.
Clean energy production by installing solar panels proved early on to be one of the best solutions. This is why ENERPAC decided to invest in solar energy, working to expand an existing solar farm called Son Salomó a few kilometers north of the capital city.
Pvwerk GmbH, a German company specializing in solar plant installation, was given the project to build the structure. Pvwerk GmbH is based in Hamburg and has around 65 employees. To date, the company has built more than 300 turnkey solar farms throughout Germany and Spain, for over 2,500 Megawatts of total power.
“At the Menorca construction site,” Pvwerk project manager Jan Schriefer recounts, “we did the work using our two new FAE MTH 225s with a Massey Ferguson 8680 tractor and a John Deere 8530.” Roberto Sandri from the FAE Service Department took care of getting the first machine ready for the field.
“Preparing the machine happened in a single day and was done in two stages,” states Sandri. “First, we hooked the MTH up to the tractor and installed it, explaining the main points for proper use and regular maintenance of the FAE multitask to the customer and the operator. The second stage took place in the field. We tested the MTH on the ground that will be milled and trained the operator on how to use the equipment.”
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The work was done north of Ciutadella de Menorca, near Punta Nati. “We were faced with a huge plot of land with a very irregular surface — a good 520,000 m2 of rock to flatten before the solar plant could be built. Specifically, we were asked to level out the rocky surface so the channels that house the plant’s cables could be built and create access pathways to the areas where the solar panels would be installed.”
The two FAE MTH’s worked all the areas around the solar panels, allowing access to the plant for cleaning and maintenance, but also the areas underneath the panels for assembling the substructures (like the posts) and the panels themselves. Additionally, a large part of the land (around 60 hectares) was milled to provide quick and easy access for trucks and other vehicles for assembling the panels.
“Milling 10-20 cm of limestone is certainly not an easy job, but with the MTH 225, we were able to do it, proceeding at 0.2 km/h”, Schriefer continues. After all, the FAE MTH's were designed precisely for this kind of work.
What does the customer think?
“We got excellent results,” Schriefer concludes. “The MTH easily handles solid rock. The machine is very powerful and very good overall. It will certainly shine at many other construction sites.”
Thanks to: www.pvwerk.de
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