Mankiewicz, a provider of coating solutions, and engineering firm Arctura have jointly developed a new wind turbine coating that promises to prevent damage from lightning strikes.

A common problem impacting trees, telephone poles and tall-rise buildings, lightning strikes can also result in expensive damage to wind turbines.

Although external lightning protection systems and surge protection systems already exist to help prevent lightning strike damage, they are still vulnerable. As such, the companies jointly developed a new coating called ArcGuide, which is intended to improve the performance of the lighting protection systems.

To accomplish this, the coating, which is applied to the turbine blade located near the lightning receptors, employs a polyurethane-based topcoat featuring a proprietary mix of elements.

The company explained that ahead of a lightning strike, the long-lasting ArcGuide coating forms ionized channels on the surface of the turbine blades that create a so-called safe path for the lightning to reach the ground receptors rather than puncturing the blade, as is common.

The coating can reportedly be applied to both new and existing turbines, the companies added.