Tetrahedron to build 130 meter tall prototype crane

July 7, 2022 | Renewables | Energy Facts Staff Writer | 2min

Tetrahedron is set to build a prototype crane together with its consortium consisting of Jack-Up Barge BV, TNO, Shell and GE. This after the consortium got awarded with a grant from the Dutch Government, a loan, and an investment.

As offshore wind turbines keep getting bigger and bigger, new innovations arise to handle the next generation of wind turbine generators. Tetrahedron has come up with a patented novel type of crane design that can lift higher than a conventional luffing boom crane on the same foundation. This will become apparent as a sky-scraping structure when the prototype will be completed in 2024 in the Netherlands.

The prototype will be built to measure key aspects of the Tetrahedron crane’s structural behaviour, verify the design and test its resilience against hot-topic phenoma such as crane-deflection and a sudden loss of load. Moreover the full-scale Tetrahedron prototype crane is a proof to the wind industry of the Tetrahedron crane’s potential of lifting higher than conventional cranes, without needing to build a completely new Jack-Up Vessel.