Abstract

There is an upward trend in wind energy production in Texas and a growing need to transport wind turbine components in that state. This paper proposes a methodology and an associated operational planning tool that can be used to develop optimal route plans for the transportation of wind turbine components on Texas roadways. The paper also recommends transportation infrastructure maintenance and improvement strategies, as well as more general multisector infrastructure improvements that will be needed to respond to the predicted growth of wind energy over time. Specifically, researchers predicted the amount of energy that will be installed in Texas from 2015 to 2025 and used the new planning tool, along with detailed knowledge of the wind energy production industry and the related supply chain, to find optimal routes for wind turbine components (minimizing both potential for road damage and driver delay). A methodology in which the planning tool is used for the analysis of several what-if scenarios is also proposed. Although the planning tool and the associated methodology were developed for Texas, they can be generalized to any other state after the underlying databases are updated.