Conquering the Desert Peaks with SANY SAC30000T

In the vast desert, lifting a 187.6-ton wind turbine nacelle—equal to the weight of over 100 cars—to a height of 130 meters sounds nearly impossible. Yet, the SANY SAC30000T 3000-ton all-terrain crane accomplished it flawlessly.

Recently, SANY’s first SAC30000T successfully hoisted the 10MW wind turbine nacelle to its 130-meter hub height in the Ulan Buh Desert, marking a new milestone for China’s large-scale wind power installation capability.

Despite the soft sand and harsh desert winds, the SAC30000T showed outstanding assembly efficiency — the single-side superlift took under 15 minutes, and the full setup with counterweight and wind jib was completed in just over an hour. Its optimized auxiliary boom made pin installation easy and precise.

During the lift, the team had to align dozens of bolt holes on the nacelle bottom with those on top of the tower — a task requiring both precision and power. “This isn’t just lifting; it’s threading a needle in the sky,” said operator Liu Bin from Qingdao Junsheng.

The SAC30000T’s nine-axle design provides superior flexibility, allowing easy repositioning even on soft sand — a major advantage over crawler cranes. “Everyone calls it a ‘flexible giant,’” Liu said.

With the same upper-car structure as the 4000-ton model, the SAC30000T delivers high efficiency and stability, performing safely under the strong desert winds. As the last bolt was tightened, China’s first 3000-ton all-terrain crane completed its debut — powering the nation’s clean energy transformation and demonstrating the next leap in Chinese engineering capability.