Photo: Courtesy of Ørsted and Eversource
The ever-increasing global demand for energy, and the ongoing push for more sustainable and environmentally friendly power sources, has led to both new construction of offshore wind farms across the globe and a renewed focus on maintaining existing systems such as nuclear power plants. The following compilation of PaintSquare Daily News articles and other PaintSquare content highlights some of the recent actions taken in the energy sector, and the vital role that coatings and corrosion professionals will play as these initiatives move forward. From the opening of the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. to ongoing research of nuclear reactor coatings, these developments offer a glimpse of what’s to come in this burgeoning industrial sector.
In early March, the South Fork Wind project launched its clean energy production, making the state of New York home to America’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm.
According to a release from Ørsted and Eversource, all 12 of South Fork Wind’s turbines are now installed, and the wind farm is delivering power to the local Long Island electric grid and commissioning is in its final stage.
At full capacity, the 130-megawatt wind farm is expected to generate enough renewable energy to power approximately 70,000 homes. It will also reportedly eliminate 6 million tons of carbon emissions over the life of the project, or the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road for the next 20 years.
The Associated Press reports that South Fork will generate more than four times the power of a five-turbine pilot project developed earlier off the coast of Rhode Island.
Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper called the opening a major milestone that proves large offshore wind farms can be built, both in the United States and in other countries with little or no offshore wind energy currently.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and other elected officials announced the historic milestone with the completion of 12 offshore wind turbines and successful delivery of power to Long Island and the Rockaways.
“When I broke ground on the South Fork project, I made a promise to build a cleaner, greener future for all New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “I’m keeping to that promise and South Fork Wind is now delivering clean energy to tens of thousands of homes and businesses on Long Island.
“With more projects in the pipeline, this is just the beginning of New York’s offshore wind future and I look forward to continued partnership with the Biden Administration and local leaders to build a clean and resilient energy grid.”
New York said last month it would negotiate a contract with Ørsted and Eversource for an even larger wind farm, Sunrise Wind, to power 600,000 homes. Additionally, Norwegian company Equinor was picked for its Empire Wind 1 project to power more than 500,000 New York homes. Both aim to start providing power in 2026.
In 2018, a PaintSquare Daily News poll (see results, above) attempted to gauge the readiness of industrial painting contractors for upcoming offshore wind tower work, as plans for future projects were under development at the time. Poll: PaintSquare Daily News
Now that several large-scale offshore wind tower construction projects are officially kicking off in the U.S., are painting contractors any more or less prepared to meet the current demand for coating work on these jobs? Log your opinion now in the current poll on paintsquare.com/poll.
Photo: Courtesy of Arctura
Sustainable energy company Arctura recently signed a technology licensing agreement with coating solutions company Mankiewicz LLC to launch a coating that prevents lightning damage on wind turbines.
Arctura states that lightning damage to wind turbines is a problem that costs the wind energy industry over $100 million each year. According to Arctura, the ArcGuide coating was manufactured to address this issue, which is expected to worsen as manufacturers build taller wind turbines while lightning activity increases from climate change.
To solve this, the company says that the ArcGuide coating can improve the performance of an installed lighting protection system. It is reportedly a polyurethane-based topcoat that uses a mixture of discrete elements.
When applied to the surface of the wind turbine blade in the vicinity of the lightning receptors, the coating reportedly allows for the formation of ionized channels over the surface of the blades during the build-up of a lightning strike. Arctura explains that this creates a safe external path for lightning to reach the ground receptor, also preventing damaging blade punctures.
“This blade coating breakthrough addresses one of the most important pain points felt by wind farm operators,” said Arctura CEO Neal Fine.
The ArcGuide coating is reportedly offered as part of the Mankiewicz BladeRep portfolio of coatings. The company adds that Mankiewicz will provide knowledge and a commitment to innovation with this agreement. Additionally, the coating has reportedly been put through a development and testing process that consistently yielded positive results.
“Our commitment to innovation and delivering high-quality coating solutions aligns perfectly with Arctura’s vision. Together, we are addressing a critical challenge faced by wind farm operators by offering this new valuable functionality as part of our BladeRep product portfolio, and we look forward to making a lasting impact in the renewable energy sector,” said Fabian Grimm, Managing Director of Mankiewicz’s U.S. operations in Charleston, South Carolina.
The company stated that the ArcGuide coating is available for both new and existing turbine models.
Photo: Anton Petrus / Getty Photos
Researchers at the GI Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have reportedly begun testing a new coating for the walls of the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER), currently under construction in France.
According to a report from Nuclear Engineering International, the team is looking for a substance to withstand damage caused by plasma burning during a thermonuclear reaction.
The plasma in the tokamak—a machine in the reactor which contains plasma with magnetic fields in a donut shape called a torus—is in a toroidal vacuum chamber. Though it has little contact with the walls due to the retention of the magnetic field, the load on them is still reportedly large.
This is reportedly both heating and radiation flux coming from plasma, or neutron and gamma radiation. The material of the wall in conditions like this can reportedly be destroyed and the wall cover particles should fall into the plasma, though heavy impurities can be especially dangerous. Substances in plasma like this reportedly lead to its rapid cooling, and finding material for the first wall that would meet all the requirements is very difficult.
Carbon was reportedly used in research tokamaks to protect the walls, however its use caused issues as it can capture and retain hydrogen isotopes, including radioactive tritium. Now, tungsten and beryllium are used as material for the first wall of the camera in ITER.
Tungsten is refractory and can reportedly withstand high temperatures, but it is heavy and when it enters plasma, it quickly cools it. Additionally, beryllium is very light, meaning when it enters plasma it does not affect its quality. However, the dust from beryllium is toxic to humans and is a strong carcinogen.
Because of this, a team of scientists led by Anatoly Krasilnikov, head of the ITER center (Russia’s national agency for the construction of ITER) began looking into alternative options for covering the wall of the tokamak.
The coating reportedly needed to be heat-resistant and made from a light material with high thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity, like some special types of ceramics. Typically, ceramics are an insulator, however there are heat-resistant materials of the ceramic class that reportedly have the proper conductivity.
The researchers applied a coating of special material with a thickness of only tens of microns, then began tests at the BETA installation in INP SB RAS, where the material is subjected to thermonuclear pulse loads. BETA is reportedly a material testing complex where researchers can observe the parameters of the substance directly during the experiment. During testing, the material is reportedly submitted to a laser-powered thermal load from plasma. Using a diagnostic system, temperature, absorbed heat and the degree of erosion can reportedly be tracked.
The report adds that surface damage can cause roughness to also change. At the BETA complex, the exact moment erosion begins can be identified with the subsequent loss of matter.
“The purpose of the tests was to characterize the limit of the loads that our test materials can withstand during pulsed heating,” said research engineer Dmitry Cherepanov.
Boron carbide is reportedly much like light beryllium and doesn’t cause the walls to cool quickly. It is reportedly a readily available material and currently comes in two options for using boron carbide—it can completely replace tungsten or applied to tungsten walls as a protective coating.
Now, the results from testing at the BETA complex have reportedly shown that the threshold values of loads at which ceramics begin to collapse are similar to tungsten. Tests have suggested that boron carbine can compete with tungsten carbide and beryllium coatings.
The Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics SB RAS, Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics (ITAM SB RAS) and Tomsk State University of Management Systems & Radio Electronics are also involved in the study.
Tagged categories: Features
