Standards Development

Scope

Part 5 of this document, in addition to Part 2, specified the technical delivery condition for coating of structural steel and cast components for nacelles.

Purpose

Five new work item proposals are in ballot simultaneously. The purpose and justification for the group
of proposals covering part 1 to 5 is given below.
Purpose
The purpose of the NWIPs is to have overall industry based ISO standard for the corrosion protection
of offshore wind turbine structures to enable these structures to reach their intended service life. Part 1
is the cover document linking the other Whilst referring to present ISO standards, such as the ISO
12944 and ISO 2063 series, this new overall standard will address industry specific requirements and
thereby reduce the need for company specific requirements, to achieve more uniform defined quality
across the supply chain from coating producers to applicators to end users.
By far the most effective platform to achieve this is an international standard with transparent
requirements for
1) Corrosion protection strategy linking design considerations for cathodic protection, coating, corrosion
allowance, material selection and dehumidification.
2) Coating surface preparation, coating systems, application, qualification and documentation is in our
view required.
An industry-based standard will give the certification bodies (DNV, BOEM etc) and
national/governmental authorities certainty for the achievement of uniform and appropriately durable
corrosion prevention systems – to ensure that the expected design life is achieved.
Justification
The generation of electricity by offshore wind turbines is a rapidly growing industry with new owners,
fabricators and operation and maintenance companies active in many different markets and
geographical locations. The offshore wind industry has moved from a largely North European base to a
global industry. The offshore marine environment is aggressive and offshore wind structures are being
installed in increasing numbers, of increasing size and generating capacity and with increasing service
life requirements. They are also increasingly being installed at substantial distances offshore and
operate unmanned. This provides a challenge, if corrosion protection is not an appropriate quality, and
the consequences of premature corrosion protection failure with subsequent coating repairs and other
maintenance requirements are of great significance affecting the lifetime of the structures, the cost of
electricity generation and increased environmental impacts. The impact of a failed corrosion protection
system on structural stability for the installation is high and cannot be underestimated.
There are no identified ISO standards which specify how to coordinate possible and desirable corrosion protection measures for offshore wind structures. This includes setting out corrosion protection
strategies for the intended lifetime of a structure and combining this with structural design
considerations.
The coating standards which the industry is currently using are a combination of
- National standards which originate from the oil and gas industry. However the offshore oil and gas
industry operates with relatively few structures in areas dictated by natural resource location and the
installations are traditionally manned. Structures common to the offshore wind industry are numerous in nature and unmanned, and, in addition designed with increased service lives. This will drive industry dedicated requirements since existing standards may no longer be appropriate.

- The ISO 12944 series and ISO 2063 series, which are a good basis for specifications, but include a
number of allowable options, inappropriate for offshore wind structures. There will be considerable
benefit in precise specifications for the offshore wind industry. The coating requirements for offshore wind structures can be unique to the industry and relatively few
coating facilities globally can fully meet these requirements due to the lack of unambiguous coating
specifications including surface preparation, coating systems to meet a specified service life,
performance requirements and means of repair.
The proposed series of documents within a new international standard will achieve the goals set out
above.