International Coatings Scene
EUROPE
BY SEAN MILMO
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT
MILMOCW@RODPUB.COM
Wind turbine coatings in demand
Protective
coatings
producers
are looking to
the offshore
wind turbine
market for
growth
opportunities.
Protective coatings companies, particu- larly those with experience supplying coatings for marine vessels and structures, are positioning themselves to exploit a
potentially massive new market in northern
Europe.
It will be for coatings for offshore wind turbines and to a lesser extent tidal and wave
power installations in which investment is
being driven by the European Union’s target
of 20 percent renewable energy by 2020.
This year as much as 1,000 mega watts (MW)
of offshore wind power is expected to be
installed, most of it in the North Sea and adjacent marine areas. This compares with an installation of 577 MW in 2009, according to the
European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). By
mid-2010 there were nearly 1,000 offshore wind
turbines operating in 43 wind farms in Europe
with a total capacity of around 2,400 MW.
Currently there are 16 offshore wind farms
under construction and a further 52 with
planning permission, totalling around 20,000
MW. Another 80,000 MW is expected eventually to be built, pushing total investment in
European offshore wind power to €100-150
billion ($130-200 billion).
“The market is a huge opportunity,” said
James O’Brien, power market manager for protective coatings at AkzoNobel’s International
Paint, citing his company’s experience in the
supply of paints for offshore oil and gas rigs and
in marine coatings.
AkzoNobel is competing against other leading European suppliers of marine and offshore coatings like Hempel of Denmark and
Jotun of Norway.
“The turbines are bigger than those operating
onshore with larger blades and also large subsea
foundations,” said Dimitris Likouressis,
Hempel’s group marketing manager for protec-
tive coatings. “They need high performing paints
so that the surfaces do not have to be repainted
for a long time because of the high costs of doing
maintenance work offshore.”
Hempel is well established in the coatings
market for wind turbines since their first
development around 20 years ago while it also
has a long involvement in marine and oil and
gas rig coatings.
