Cathodic Protection
For Offshore Wind Farms

An introduction

Offshore wind turbines typically suffer an extreme set of circumstances. Often placed in estuaries, commonly in very shallow water, their structures are at serious risk from high flow rates and seabed movement. Typical offshore cathodic protection designs can fall drastically short under these conditions.

A Specialized Solution - IN 2004/5, Deepwater was commisioned to put 20 years of experience with the offshore oil and gas industry into designing a cathodic protection system to overcome these problems. The environmentally friendly, sub bottom impressed current VSE Anode (vaulted seawater envelope) was the result. Designed specifically for shallow water wind farms, The VSE allows turbine operators to retrofit new cathodic protection to existing turbines. The unit is powered by the turbine itself, and provides corrosion protection to all subsea and buried metal components of the the structure.

Above Water - Wind turbines suffer above water as well, where cathodic protection is impossible. Corrosion-induced failure of components associated with the dynamics of the turbine could have catastrophic results. Deepwater's risk based inspection services can alleviate the risk of failure. We provide inspection and consulting services for all types of corrosion prevention problems.

Related Technical Papers

Offshore Cathodic Protection 101

A brief tutorial about the science of cathodic protection as it pertains to offshore structures, complete with diagrams, chemical equations etc.

Offshore Risk-based Corrosion Integrity Management

The management of corrosion and integrity for offshore applications has become more critical as deepwater exploration and production continues. There are many challenges ahead ...

 

Corrosion Control Products for Wind Turbines