Lightning Protection Risk Management: Meteorage And Recase Cooperate For Better Lightning Protection in The Wind Sector

Pau, France / Busdorf, Germany - Thunderstorms and lightning events pose a risk in the operation of wind turbines. Against this background, the French company Meteorage, which specializes in lightning protection risk management, and the German engineering firm Recase Regenerative Energien have agreed to cooperate.

The aim is to expand the use of lightning protection solutions for wind energy in Germany and ensure that users benefit from Meteorage technology. All project phases of a wind farm, from evaluation, construction, operation and maintenance through to repowering, are to be supported with proactive lightning protection risk management. The two companies also hope that the partnership will enable them to better serve the innovative and fast-growing wind energy sector.

“From our experience, we know that WTGs are frequently struck by lightning and that the resulting damage or faults are not always recognized to be causes by such an event. Furthermore, the lightning protection system can be impaired or pre-damaged by frequent lightning events; if this remains unrecognized, there is an increased risk of lightning-related damage to the WTG. The use of METEORAGE data makes it easier to recognize the frequency and causality of lightning events and thus enables appropriate measures to be taken,” says Marco Hansen, Vice President of Service Engineering at Recase about the cooperation.

“Lightning is a main threat to wind farms. The mission of METEORAGE is to mitigate these risks, and we are very proud to launch this partnership with RECASE, a highly recognized company, with whom we share this commitment to deliver decision-making tools to save lives and properties,” adds Meteorage President Dominique Lapeyre de Chavardès on the importance of the collaboration.

Meteorage is a global specialist in lightning risk management for a wide range of sectors (renewable energy, utilities, industry, aviation, national weather services, insurance, etc.). More than 3,500 customers use Meteorage's data for personal safety, operational planning, maintenance optimization and lightning and thunderstorm risk analysis. Meteorage's services are based on a high-precision lightning detection network covering Europe with a lightning detection efficiency of over 98 percent and an average detection accuracy of 100 meters. Meteorage also offers its services outside Europe using the GLD360 long distance network.

Recase is an independent engineering company specializing in engineering services in the field of renewable energies and wind energy in particular. The team has many years of experience in the wind industry and is active in both the onshore and offshore sectors, supporting suppliers, developers and operators worldwide.

Source: IWR Online, May 05 2024