E.ON Keeps Arkona Foundations Rust Free with TSA Coating

E.ON has protected all 60 steel foundations of the Arkona offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea with a special anti-corrosion coating developed in cooperation with Rambøll Germany and in coordination with the relevant authorities.

The Thermal Spray Aluminium (TSA) coating is said to ”significantly reduce” corrosion process on monopiles during their 25-year operating lifetime, cutting deposits into the sea ”by several hundred tonnes” in the process.

Following the development of the TSA, EEW SPC, the manufacturer of the monopiles for the wind farm, and Krebs organisations solutions on behalf of E.ON to implement the process industrially at their locations in Rostock. To this end, existing coating halls were also expanded and the world’s first fully automated coating line was developed, E.ON said.

During the coating process, a robot with two arc burners sprays a 350 μm thick layer of molten aluminum onto the foundations. The surface is then sealed with resin. The TSA process has hitherto mainly been used as corrosion protection for smaller steel components under water or for larger components above water, for example in offshore substations. The process is being applied for the first time on an industrial scale for the foundations of the Arkona turbines, E.ON said.

”The guiding principle behind all E.ON activities is to improve people’s lives. Environmental and climate protection play a central role as part of this. E.ON has again proved its innovative capability with the TSA procedure. We will now analyse and further optimise the process in order to use it for future offshore wind projects,” said Sven Utermöhlen, COO of E.ON Climate & Renewables.

Meanwhile, all 60 foundations with the TSA coating for the Arkona offshore wind farm have been produced. They have a maximum length of 81 metres and a diameter of up to almost 8 metres – sufficiently wide to allow an ICE train to pass through.

The 385MW Arkona wind farm, a joint venture between E.ON and Statoil, is located 35 kilometres north-east of the island of Rügen. The wind farm will comprise 60 Siemens 6MW turbines scheduled for commissioning in 2019.