GIANT underwater tractors are being lined up to plant wind turbine towers in
offshore energy farms off the Dutch coast. Looking a little like the enormous
caterpillar-tracked Crawler that trundles space shuttles out to their launch
pads, the subsea tractors will be able to install turbines quickly, all year
round, in any weather.
It’s no mean feat, says Henk Hutting of Kema, a Dutch engineering firm based
in Arnhem. Wind turbine towers are usually built on land and carried out to sea
by crane-equipped barges, before being lowered onto supports driven into the
seabed. Bad weather makes installation next to…
