Liebherr LR 11350 tops out world’s tallest wind turbine in Lusatia

The pilot plant, developed by Dresden-based GICON-Großmann Ingenieur Consult GmbH, pairs a large steel lattice tower with a telescoping inner tower. Once the three rotor blades were in place, the inner section was telescoped upwards by an integrated system, bringing the 3.8-megawatt machine to its full 365-metre height. The rotor, roughly 126 metres in diameter, is intended to tap the stronger and steadier winds found at that altitude and open up new ground for commercial onshore wind generation.

375 tonnes on the hook

Schmidbauer GmbH & Co. KG had the LR 11350 on site in an existing wind farm between Berlin and Dresden from spring 2025. For most of the campaign the crawler crane worked with Liebherr’s PowerBoom parallel boom system, which kept the heaviest components within reach. The biggest single lift was a tower section measuring around 40 x 40 x 40 metres and grossing 375 tonnes, which the crane set onto the 50-metre-high base structure at a radius of about 44 metres. To get into position, the machine travelled along a purpose-built running track of steel plates and bongossi hardwood.

While the outer steel structure went up, the later-telescoping upper tower was fabricated inside it. Up to the provisional tower height of around 160 metres, the LR 11350 ran the PowerBoom with a jib tip of up to 84 metres, carrying a total ballast of up to 850 tonnes on the crane and the derrick jib’s ballast platform.

Rig change in six days

For the rotor blade installation the crane had to be re-rigged. With the LR 11350’s quick set-up concept and enough hands on site, the change from the PowerBoom configuration to a 104-metre lattice boom took just six days. Combined with the 84-metre luffing jib, the crane reached a roller head height of 200 metres. The blade lifts then waited on a long enough window of low wind; when the weather finally cooperated, the teams fitted all three blades at around 170 metres within twelve hours, working partly through the night.

“During its approximately 18-month period of operation, my LR 11350 performed with absolute reliability and without any faults.”

— Fabian Ueck, crane operator, Schmidbauer

Several Liebherr mobile cranes supported the project alongside the big crawler, rigging and ballasting the LR 11350, working on the base structure and pre-assembling the segments of the lattice tower. For GICON, founded in 1994 and part of the internationally active GICON Group, the Lusatia prototype is the proving ground for its high-altitude wind concept.