Wind Today - Q3 2008 - (Page 105)

Industry Focus Crane Service Inc. Emmet Storks founded Crane Service Inc. in 1960 with two cranes servicing the Albuquerque, NM area. In 1993, Rick Sigel purchased the company, and expanded operations to Bloomfield, NM and Sweetwater, TX. According to Will Ricketts, marketing manager, the company’s fleet now includes more than 100 cranes ranging from 8.5 tons to 500 tons in capacity. Crane Service’s operations include crane rentals with operators, bare rentals (without operators), heavy hauling, and machinery moving. Industry Wind Industry Bob Strohacker, Sweetwater, TX branch manager, says Crane Service began working with the wind industry in 1992 on a Zond Wind Energy project in Fort Davis, TX. “This was an experimental wind site where we did the full erection of 12 turbines,” says Strohacker. “We continued to do work for Zond/Enron/GE (Zond was acquired by Enron which later sold its wind assets to GE Energy) on a multitude of projects,” Strohacker continues. He says Crane Service has done erection and maintenance work on more than 20 sites in the states of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. Crane Service Maintenance In addition to erecting wind turbines, Crane Service provides equipment and expertise for wind farm maintenance work. When a major turbine supplier first encountered a hub and rotor that needed to be removed, but was stuck out of its “rabbit ear” position, Strohacker says Crane Service proposed a solution. “We manufactured specialized lifting lugs to take the rotor away from its mount and then had a second crane rig to handle the original lugs,” says Strohacker. “At a height of more than 150 feet, the two cranes would then work together and rotate the rotor to its “rabbit ear” position, followed by one of the cranes breaking free and the other cradling the hub and rotor to the ground,” he continued. According to Strohacker, this hub and rotors were more than 260 feet in the air and the procedure, which was successful, had never been attempted before. Strohacker notes that in its 16 years of working in the wind industry, Crane Service has managed that kind of service with no accidents during wind farm work. 9526 North I-20 Sweetwater, TX 79556 325-236-6132 FAX: 325-236-6159 www.craneserviceinc.com bobs@craneserviceinc.com Crane Service • 8.5-ton capacity to 500-ton capacity cranes • Hydraulic, Conventional Lattice Boom Truck Cranes, and Crawlers with Tower and Skyhorse attachments • Certified rigging and spreader bars • Complete contract rigging and engineering services • Rentals available—hourly, daily, weekly, and long-term • Both Operated Crane Rental and Bare Crane Rental 105 http://www.craneserviceinc.com http://www.craneserviceinc.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Wind Today - Q3 2008

Wind Today - Q3 2008 Contents 24th Annual CanWEA Conference and Trade Show Vancouver, BC, Conference Host City CanWEA Banquet/Awards WINDPOWER 2008 Review WINDPOWER 2008 Awards AWEA Fall Symposium 2008 Solano Wind Project Large Wind Turbine Manufacturers Forum Manufacturers of Wind Turbines Installed in the United States Wind Turbine Manufacturers Installed Capacity Prince Wind Energy Project Education and Training for A New Wind Frontier Joyce McLean Jim Walker Supply Chain Challenges and Solutions . . . from the Turbine OEM Perspective . . . from the Component OEM Perspective . . . from the Base Industry Perspective . . . from the Investor Perspective U.S. Wind Industry Installations Exceed 20,000 MW 20% by 2030 Summary Analysis Global Wind Turbine Procurement: Strategies and Contract Structures Wind Turbine Acquisition WT News: Association News WT News: Government WT News: Canada WT News: United States WT News: International MMS Close to Issuing Leases for Offshore Testing of Renewable Resources Expert Says Turbine Related Deaths May Cause Significant Impact to Bat Population Windpower Turbines Spinning Again on Prince Edward Island Map: Wind Turbine, Tower, and Blade Manufacturers in the United States A Look at Regional Entities U.S. Installed Wind Capacity State Wind Resource Rankings Wind Resource Maps (Wisconsin and Maine) Bruce Bailey, AWS Truewind John Keating, Canadian Hydro Composotech Crane Service Inc. GPCo Inc. Morgan AM&T 3M Bennett International Group Wind Farms Completed in the United States Wind Farms Under Construction in the United States Glossary Product Surveys Calendar Ad Index

Wind Today - Q3 2008

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