The increasing utilization of wind energy supports our transition to a more sustainable and electrified world. Wind energy has several benefits including cost effectiveness, energy security and carbon-free energy generation. Wind energy costs are minimal after the installation of a wind turbine and these installations can replace energy generation methods that use fossil fuels and produce greenhouse gas emission. Along with all the benefits and growth in the wind industry, there are also challenges including safety, reliability and the potential for costly damage if turbines are not appropriately protected.
Offshore wind applications are particularly unique. These offshore wind farms tend to be more remote and farther away from maintenance facilities. The surrounding water also puts these turbines at a higher risk for lightning damage. Offshore wind farms also tend to have larger turbines and encounter higher wind speeds than onshore wind turbines.
In recent years, the U.S. has put a significant investment towards offshore wind.
According to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, $2.1 billion was invested since 2023 for port development, vessel orders, workforce development, research, and other supply chain investments.Additionally, the global offshore wind energy installation capacity in 2023 is the fourth largest annual installed capacity yet.
In offshore wind applications, lightning protection, grounding and bonding and power connections are essential.
Lightning Protection
Lightning strikes can have devastating effects on electrical components which are housed within wind turbine nacelles. Since offshore wind applications tend to be taller and more exposed, these turbines are more vulnerable to lightning strikes. Both wind turbine blades and towers need to be protected from lightning strikes, and nVent provides a variety of solutions to help ensure wind turbines operate without interruption from strikes. Our lightning protection assemblies have been installed on thousands of wind turbine blades worldwide. For lightning protection, we offer solutions for the blades, nacelle and tower. This includes components such as receptors, nVent ERICO Cadweld Exothermic Connections, conductors and lightning event counters/registration systems. nVent also offers a lightning event counter with remote monitoring, which is installed on the down conductor to record the number of lightning strikes captured by the protection system.
Grounding and Bonding
Wind turbine grounding system designs must satisfy the step-and-touch potential requirements regarding the safety of personnel, provide sufficient ground reference potential to assure proper functionality of electrical equipment and effectively dissipate the energy from lightning strikes. nVent experts can assist engineers and designers with selecting the right solutions for their designs and projects, using the latest grounding design software. Grounding products include nVent ERICO Cadweld Exothermic Connections, rebar clamps, ground/earth testers and nVent ERICO Ground Enhancement Material (GEM), compliant with IEC standards.
Power Connections
Strong power connections support efficient energy transfer, reliability and safety in wind turbines. Various splice blocks, power shunts, distribution blocks, flexible conductors and busbar supports can be used to build power connections between components in the nacelle, tower and power hut. nVent ERIFLEX Flexibar Advance flexible busbar reduces the number of power connections required in turbine designs and improves the reliability of power connections by eliminating compression lugs. These flexible busbar connections also allow the nacelle to be smaller by enabling a tighter bending radius for connectors, resulting in cost savings, efficiency and simplified design.
nVent has been a trusted, reliable utility industry partner for more than a century. We offer products with a long service life that are less likely to fail prematurely, exposing critical assets to damage. Often, repairing damage to offshore wind application is costly. We strive to help protect valuable, mission-critical assets from costly damage with innovative features.