Lyngby, Denmark -- Marine coatings supplier Hempel is taking part in a major project to performance test an offshore corrosion protection system on WindFloat -- a semi-submersible floating structure for offshore wind turbines that has been deployed with a 2MW Vestas turbine off the coast of Agucadoura, Portugal.
Windfloat's construction is somewhat similar to a small floating oil platform, and such a design may prove to be a way of cutting costs and time for installation of offshore wind energy farms.
The sections of the WindFloat foundation for which Hempel is providing the test products based on polyurethane raw materials are: the permanently immersed areas, the splash zone and the above-water line areas. In addition to supplying coating systems, Hempel said it is also contributing technical support and advice on the project.
Hempel's statement said this project is being carried out by the Materials and Coatings Laboratory (LMR) of LNEG (National Laboratory for Energy and Geology) in Portugal. The overall aim is testing and evaluating different corrosion protection systems for offshore steel structures.
The performance of the anticorrosive coatings will be evaluated by exposure at the Agucadoura test site over two years.
The WindFloat project is part of WindPlus, a joint venture headed by Energias de Portugal (EDP) with partners including Principle Power Inc. (who developed WindFloat) and Vestas, which has supplied the V80-2.0 MW wind turbine for the project.
The first WindFloat was successfully deployed off the coast of Agucadoura, Portugal, in December 2011.
According to Hempel, this is the first offshore wind deployment requiring no heavy lift equipment offshore. All assembly, installation and pre-commissioning of the wind turbine took place on land.
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