Wind Tower Innovation

The Santa Monica Wind Farm, located near Trairi in Ceará, Brazil, consists of 36 Alstom ECO 122 (3 MW) turbines mounted on 120 m-high concrete towers. The wind farm spans 3 km² and includes four sub-farms: Santa Monica (7 units), Cacimbas (7), Estrela (11), and Ouro Verde (11).
Each tower comprises 32 prefabricated concrete rings (C60/75), cast vertically using match-casting at a nearby facility. The tower base is conical, transitioning to a cylindrical top, and rests on concrete footings over stone column-reinforced soil. The rings are assembled on-site using connectors and external post-tensioning.
An innovative inverted erection method, developed specifically for this project, uses heavy-lifting technology to avoid mobile cranes—minimizing downtime caused by frequent high winds in the region.

Customer/Owner:

Engie Brazil
Engineer

Freyssinet Technical Department
Works period

July 2014 - January 2017

Freyssinet Scope

Design-and-build contract entailing: the complete foundation and tower detailed design, including soil improvement
the tower certification and tower internals design, (3) the complete site facilities set-up
the design and construction of the precast yard
Soil improvement, foundations and towers erection works. The precasting works entailed the development of formworks tools and methodologies allowing vertical match-casting of the concrete rings.
To avoid mobile crane downtime in high winds, Freyssinet developed the Eolift—an innovative system enabling inverted tower construction with all assembly at ground level. It operates in wind speeds up to 20 m/s.

Santa Monica Wind Farm (Trairi II)

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