Lots of Concrete Required for Wind Turbine Foundation

Construction of Clemson University’s Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility at the Restoration Institute reached another milestone this past Friday when the foundation for a larger test rig was poured. Engineers with Choate Construction poured some 1,900 cubic yards of concrete into a pit 50 feet wide by 100 feet long by 15 feet deep, all resting on 115 seventy foot-deep piles, to form the 15-megawatt test rig foundation. How much concrete is that? Clemson is glad you asked: if those piles were placed end-to-end, they would cover a distance of more than a mile-and-a-half.