CommScope,
a global provider infrastructure solutions for communications networks, will
supply the Bishop Hill Wind Farm in Henry County, Illinois with its GroundSmart
Copper Clad Steel solution, an alternative to solid and stranded copper that is
increasingly in demand by utilities for its cost-efficiency and anti-theft
characteristics.
CommScope will provide 1.7
million feet of GroundSmart copper clad steel grounding wire to the project
this year – the largest GroundSmart application to date. The Bishop Hills Wind
Farm will include approximately 130 wind turbines.
Copper
clad steel continues to gain in popularity due to its lower cost, the integrity
of the material and the suitability of its use in grounding applications as a
replacement for copper for wind farms,” said Ric Johnsen, senior vice
president, Broadband, CommScope.
In
an effort to reduce costs on wind farm projects, developers and contractors are
turning to a practical alternative to solid copper. GroundSmart is the smart
alternative to copper, providing high strength and reliability for years. The
developers of Bishop Hill see GroundSmart as a simple solution to reducing
projects costs without compromising the system’s integrity,” Johnsen added.
Copper clad
steel provides a safe, highly reliable alternative to the use of solid and
stranded copper for grounding applications. Copper clad steel is specifically
designed to disperse fault currents and lightning strikes at a lower total cost
of ownership compared to pure copper. It is an electrical conductor that has an
outer sleeve of copper metallurgically bonded to a solid steel core. With theft
of copper on the rise, the lower copper content in GroundSmart also reduces the
attractiveness of the product to thieves.
GroundSmart
Copper Clad Steel benefits from CommScope BiMetals technology and manufacturing
process. The products are created by bonding two different metals into a single
conductor, resulting in a low-cost and light-weight alternative to using solid
copper. This unique solution is produced at the CommScope facility in
Statesville, NC, that is ISO 9001 and ISO 14000 registered.
By TelecomLead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
