SETE, Paris, France. “That’s why it took us more time
than we expected, but finally it works perfectly and
we are all satisfied. French people are often cautious
concerning new projects, but the latest press cover-
age about our turbines seemed very positive.”
For the wind turbine installation project, stake-
holders turned to green energy company UGE
International, based in New York, New York, USA.
UGE helped determine the right location, style and
color for the turbines, then developed overnight
work shifts so that equipment and materials could
be manually lifted 122 meters (400 feet) above
ground where the two five-meter (16-foot) tur-
bines were installed. Components that wouldn’t fit
in the service elevators were brought up by pulley
and rope at night rather than by crane.
“We’ve done over 2,000 installations worldwide,
and we’ve never had to deal with not being able to
use cranes,” says Jan Gromadzki, senior product
manager, UGE, New York, New York, USA.
Despite the unique challenges, the team was
able to install the vertical-axis wind turbines inside
metal scaffolding above the tower’s second level.
“It was very hard to model the entire assembly
in the existing tower,” Mr. Gromadzki says. “There
UGE installed
VisionAir5
wind turbines.
“Not many people are able to work on
this kind of turbine. That’s why it took
us more time than we expected.”
—Sébastien Reinier, project manager, SETE, Paris, France
