Collett Transports 216 Units for Scottish Wind Project

By Simon West

UK-headquartered Collett & Sons has successfully delivered 216 wind turbine components including a batch of 67-meter-long blades to the Limekiln Wind Farm project in Caithness in the Scottish Highlands.

The first shipment of blades and tower sections arrived at Scotland’s Scrabster Port – Britain’s most northerly mainland port – in May 2024. Here, Collett oversaw ship berthing, cargo handling, crane operations and vessel discharge.

A specialized fleet of trailers were then deployed to carry out the move, including Nooteboom super wing carriers to deliver the blades and 3x7 Nooteboom clamps to help carry the 74-ton base tower sections. A 6-axle stepframe trailer was used to transport towers, nacelles, drive trains and hubs. The project team comprised three drivers, three steersmen, a project manager, a site supervisor and a tow truck operator.

The final delivery was carried out in October.

Prior to the start of deliveries, Collett’s consulting team conducted a detailed route assessment, including swept path analysis reports.

“The evaluations identified the need of street furniture removal, tree trimming and most notably, widening of a sharp bend on a turning area near the port exit road,” Collett said in a statement. “This modification was particularly crucial for transporting the blades due to their length. To ensure route feasibility, Collett carried out a test run, simulating the loaded blade trailer length using an extendable trailer with a 15-meter rear projection.”

All components traveled the same 45-minute route to the wind farm site entrance before proceeding to their designated pads within the site. Police escorts accompanied the blades and tower sections up to the site entrance, where Collett’s own escort fleet took over for the remainder of the journey.

The Limekiln Wind Farm, owned by Canadian power company Boralex, is a 108-megawatt (MW) project featuring 24, 4.5-MW Vestas V136 turbines. The facility will have the capacity to generate enough green electricity to meet the annual demand of some 40,200 households.

Collett & Sons will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe 2025.