NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Land-Based Wind Turbine 

Transportation and Logistics 

Barriers and Their Effects on U.S. 

Wind Markets

American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) 

WINDPOWER 2014 Conference

Presented by Jason Cotrell with contributions from 

T. Stehly, J. Johnson, J. O. Roberts, Z. Parker, G. Scott, 

and D. Heimiller

May 8, 2014

Las Vegas, Nevada

PR-5000-61780
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Reprinted with permission. Fischer, Martin. “World’s Largest Blade Begins Journey to Scotland.” SSP Technology A/S. July 17, 2013
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Motivation: Transportation and logistics barriers limit

Objectives: 

– Identify U.S. logistical and transportation limits, barriers, and impacts

– Provide recommendations for strategies and specific actions.

Project Motivation and Objectives

FAA Blade Tip Height Barrier

– Stakeholder support and market stability

– Manufacturing competitiveness

– Domestic content

– Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) 

reduction pathways

– Development of new U.S. lands

– Turbine size 

and height
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Technical Approach

Identified mass, cost, and size breakpoints for blades, towers, and nacelles by:

o Performing interviews with wind industry project developers, original equipment 

manufacturers (OEMs), and transportation and logistics companies 

o Reviewing published literature on trends and developments in increasing wind turbine size, 

logistics, and transportation issues.

Performed analyses to:

o Identify which transportation and logistics challenges affect wind plant installations today

o Determine the increase in turbine size that could be achieved if transportation and logistics 

challenges are solved.

Liebherr’s 1,350 t 

hydraulic crane 

lifting tower section 

of Alstom’s 3-MW 

ECO 100 wind 

turbine at the 

National Wind 

Technology Center

Photo by Lee J. 

Fingersh, NREL
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Summary of Transportation and Logistics Barriers

Trucking larger blades with wider 

chords

Hoisting larger nacelles onto taller 

towers

Exceeding Federal 

Aviation 

Administration (FAA) 

blade-tip height

Trucking heavier nacelles

Trucking larger blades with 

bigger root diameters

Trucking longer blades

Trucking largediameter towers

 Impacts U.S. turbine installations today

 Potentially impacts U.S. turbine installations today

 Potentially impacts future U.S. turbine installations 

Photo by Iberdrola

Renewables, Inc., NREL 

16114
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FAA Height Barrier

1 Assumes an enabling threshold of 30% gross capacity factor, 

standard land area exclusions, and 3 MW/sq km

2 Difference between a 96-m and 110-m hub height for a GE 1.6-MW, 

100-m rotor diameter

Recommended Actions:

– Continue to work with FAA and stakeholders 

to improve the transparency of FAA lighting 

requirements above 152 m

– Further reduce uncertainty and risk by using 

demonstration projects.

320,000 sq km new 

deployable land by 

increasing hub height 

from 96 m to 110 m

Barrier:

– Structures above 152 m trigger additional FAA lighting requirements and a 

review process that creates uncertainty and risk.

Barrier Impacts:

– Some U.S. OEMs and developers are unwilling to consider developments 

with blade tip heights above 152 m

– 320,000 sq km (~1,000 GW) new deployable land in low wind speed 

regions.1,2

Photo by Michael 

Milligan , NREL 13357
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Current single-crane picks require rare, extremely large 

cranes to hoist nacelles of larger turbines, resulting in:

– Risk of crane shortages

– Wider wind plant access roads

– Limited access to complex terrain

– Smaller wind turbines and shorter towers.

Nacelle Hoisting Barrier: Description

Hub height that crawler cranes can hoist conventional turbine nacelles (with the gearbox and generator 

hoisted separately) and the number of cranes estimated to be available

Photo by Dennis 

Schroeder, NREL 

20872
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Benefit of Addressing the Barrier:

– Nearly doubles the new deployable land to 614,000 sq km (~2,000 GW)

Recommended Action:

– Reduce uncertainty of multicrane lifts via stakeholder engagement and demonstration projects.

Nacelle Hoisting Barrier: Impact

614,000 sq km new 

deployable land by 

increasing hub height 

from 96 m to 140 m
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Barrier:

– Dimensional and weight-transportation constraints increase blade 

and tower costs and limit deployment opportunities

Barrier Impacts:

– Smaller, structurally suboptimal (expensive) tower 

 and blade designs

– Economic upper limit on turbine size

Recommended Action:

– Continued technology development and 

demonstration of segmented blades and alternative 

tower manufacturing and assembly methods

Benefits:

– New LCOE reduction pathways

– New deployable land area (will be estimated in FY 14).

Blade and Tower Transportation Barriers

Blade designs are limited to lengths of ~62 m to accommodate 

turns and overhead traffic features

Photo by Jim Green,

NREL 16178

Photo by Sandia National 

Laboratories, NREL 17325
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S

Potential Impacts of Mitigating Barriers 
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Addressing transportation and logistics barriers provides long-term economic benefits by:

Summary and Next Steps

– Providing LCOE reduction pathways

– Unlocking new U.S. land for deployment (~ 3,000 GW) 

– Improving stakeholder support and market stability

– Manufacturing competitiveness and domestic content.

– Enabling larger, taller turbines

Next, to estimate the deployment rate, we need to 

quantify:

– System cost of energy

 Costs for big advanced turbines

 Installation costs

– Permitting and regulatory requirements.

For more information, see the associated NREL technical report: Analysis of Transportation and Logistics Challenges 

Affecting the Deployment of Larger Wind Turbines: Summary of Results http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/61063.pdf