Polytech, a global supplier of protection and performance-enhancing solutions for wind turbines, Hokutaku, a leading third-party wind turbine maintenance provider in Japan, and Horizon Ocean Management (HOM), an inspection and maintenance provider for offshore wind in Japan, have signed a collaboration agreement to supply Polytech’s leading edge protection, ELLE™, and lightning detection and monitoring solution, LKDS®, for onshore and offshore wind turbines in Japan.
World leading expertise in Japan
Hokutaku and HOM have long been serving the Japanese wind market with maintenance, repair, and other services for wind turbines. Their extensive field and service expertise bring invaluable insights about the operational conditions and challenges that wind farm owners and operators are facing in Japan.
Polytech’s track record and world leading expertise in asset integrity perfectly complements this, and therefore provide a solid foundation for the collaboration agreement. ELLE™ is installed on 70% of all new offshore blades, while it protects more than 55,000 blades against erosion globally.
LKDS®, Polytech’s DNV-verified lightning detection and monitoring solution, is installed on more than 2,000 turbines globally, and is currently the only Class 1 lightning monitoring solution on the market as defined in the coming Annex L of the IEC 61400-24 Ed2 standards.
Polytech has furthermore developed DNV-verified tools and has world-leading expertise to assess site-specific erosion and lightning risks, as well as asset integrity over the operational lifetime.
The collaboration between Polytech, Hokutaku, and HOM therefore strengthen the service and solution offerings to the Japanese wind market, which will ultimately benefit wind park developers, owners, and operators.
Strong collaboration for top-notch wind power solutions and services
With this agreement, Hokutaku and HOM join the nominated service providers for Polytech’s ELLE™ and become exclusive service providers for Polytech’s LKDS® for Japanese wind projects. The collaboration covers sales and aftersales services (e.g., installation, maintenance), as well as consultancy services on blade erosion and lightning risk management. Polytech will provide its products and necessary training service to Hokutaku technicians to strengthen the in-country service structure.
Polytech's Head of Aftermarket Marc Foldager welcomes the collaboration.
Japan has been an important market for Polytech, and we have already supported many asset owners here with their erosion and lightning challenges. We are looking forward to partnering with Hokutaku and HOM, who have extensive experience and knowledge in the Japanese market, to further support wind projects and our customers in Japan.
Under the collaboration agreement, Hokutaku will provide the installation and maintenance of the Polytech products, as well as replacement of existing solutions with Polytech’s products both onshore and offshore.
Ryota Hayashi, President of Hokutaku, is looking forward to the collaboration. “Wind turbines operate in a variety of weather conditions, and precipitation and lightning are factors that can have a significant impact on their performance and maintenance needs. Specifically, leading edge erosion is caused by the impact of particles, such as rain droplets, dust, hail, and other atmospheric particles, in the air on the surface of the blade. And it results in reduced turbine efficiency that requires expensive repairs. Furthermore, lightning strike is the single largest cause of unplanned downtime in wind turbines due to electrical and mechanical failures and in worst cases, it can even cause wind turbine fire. It is therefore desirable to minimize the impact of erosion and lightning strikes, and minimize repairs for offshore wind turbine blades, because the method of accessing offshore wind is more limited than onshore. We are glad that we are now able to offer such advanced products and services, ELLE™ and LKDS®, to our customers partnering with Polytech. This will improve wind turbine performance and contribute greatly to the wind power industry in Japan.”
As per the agreement, HOM will introduce, market, and sell Polytech’s products to the Japanese market, and provide risk consultancy and advisory services, including auction support service. HOM has already established a unique position within the supply chain of the offshore wind industry in Japan. It has entered multiple collaboration agreements with several leading European service providers for offshore wind and have provided a variety of advisory service to Japanese offshore wind developers.
Nobuyuki Takagi, Managing Director of HOM, explains that “Nowadays, the risks and financial impacts have become bigger with bigger turbines. In addition, the unique weather conditions in Japan, such as heavy rain and lightning, require more active prevention plans and maintenance strategies, as well as building up maintenance teams to manage blade risks. Working with Polytech to mitigate blade risks has become one of the important services that brings value to us and our partners. We believe that our collaboration will bring solutions that will contribute to risk mitigation and long-term cost optimization for Japanese offshore wind projects.”
The collaboration agreement between the parties is effective immediately. All parties are actively working with customers in Japan across onshore and offshore wind development, installation, and operations.
Read the full press release here.