The first offshore wind turbine farm in the world Vindeby(1) was constructed and commissioned back in 1991. The turbines have a capacity of 0.45 MW. Now 25 years later Vindeby will be decommissioned. As new turbines have much larger capacity than the existing one, replacing the turbines does not represent a good business case.

Since the early 90’es rapid development has taken place with Europe being the epicenter of development. Now wind turbines with 8 MW capacity are being designed and installed and offshore wind gains ground worldwide.

Offshore wind turbine projects have a relatively short design service life of 20-30 years compared to infrastructure projects designed with 50-80-100 years of service life. The offshore marine environment and special operational conditions under the influence of fatigue from the turbine however, makes durability of offshore wind turbine farms a good challenge. The service life is considered using a combination of corrosion allowance, coatings, cathodic protection and material selection.

This paper presents ongoing work in relation to specifying corrosion protection for the offshore wind turbine industry in the European CEN TC219(2) committee. This comprises corrosion protection specification for external as well as internal parts of the turbine foundations.

Subject
Steel structures, Marine environments, Corrosion fatigue, Offshore structures, Cathodic protection, Turbines, Industries, Structures, Installation, Coating service life, Wind turbines, Corrosion protection, Wind
Keywords:
Offshore wind farms, cathodic protection, corrosion protection, fatigue
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2017
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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