Global Floating Offshore Wind Accelerates

Global Floating Offshore Wind Accelerates: Installed Capacity to Reach 16.5 GW by 2030—How to Tackle Corrosion Challenges?

September 2025, Stavanger, Norway

一、Industry Report: Floating Offshore Wind on the Verge of Large-Scale Deployment

In August 2025, Norwegian energy consultancy Rystad Energy released its latest report, showing that global floating offshore wind is entering the threshold of commercial-scale deployment. According to the report:By the end of 2024, cumulative global floating wind capacity reached 412 MW；By 2030, this is expected to soar to 16.5 GW, nearly 40 times growth

Europe remains the main battleground: the UK, Norway, and Portugal together plan over 10 GW of capacity.
However, the real variable comes from Asia—South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan have introduced floating wind subsidies, and by 2027, Asia is expected to contribute 35% of global new floating wind capacity.

Behind this blue-ocean opportunity, a neglected challenge is emerging: corrosion control.

“Floating offshore wind is not a simple translation of fixed-bottom foundations,” said Lars Petersen, Senior Chief Engineer at DNV, during the Nordic Wind Technology Forum in Stavanger.
“Mooring systems, dynamic cables, and floating structures create entirely different corrosion environments, and the industry currently lacks mature data for a 30-year design lifespan.”

二、Core Challenges: Corrosion Conditions Change Drastically as Wind Moves Offshore

Fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines are typically located in water depths less than 50 meters, with relatively stable foundations and predictable corrosion environments. Floating offshore wind, however, presents entirely different challenges—mooring systems keep the floating structures in constant motion, creating “dynamic corrosion” that introduces new technical difficulties.

An internal study by Huarun Industrial Protection Technology Center identifies three major corrosion pain points for floating offshore wind:

2.1 Dynamic Loading in the Splash Zone

In fixed-bottom structures, the splash zone is a clearly defined “banded area.” In floating structures, however, tides, waves, and mooring systems combine to create a vertically moving “dynamic zone.”Coatings in this zone must withstand simultaneous dry–wet cycling, dynamic bending, and wave impact.

“Our lab simulations show that traditional epoxy coatings in dynamic splash zones have a fatigue life about 60% shorter than in static conditions,” noted Zhang Minghua, Senior Researcher at Huarun, during a forum presentation.

2.2 Coupled Wear and Corrosion of Mooring Chains

Mooring chains are the “lifeline” of floating wind turbines, but their operating conditions are extremely harsh:Micromovements between chain links and fairleads cause wear；Localized corrosion occurs where marine organisms attach；Stress corrosion cracking under high loads，These failure modes interact and compound, exceeding the design limits of conventional coatings.

2.3 Bending Fatigue of Dynamic Cables

Dynamic cables experience continuous bending and tension, so their outer sheaths must provide corrosion protection while maintaining flexibility and fatigue resistance.The industry generally uses multi-layer extrusion structures, but corrosion failures at splice and joint areas remain a key pain point.

三、Huarun’s Response: Technology Transfer from Offshore Oil & Gas to Floating Wind

Huarun has over 20 years of engineering experience in marine corrosion protection. Since entering the offshore oil & gas supply chain in 2003, Huarun’s products have been applied to more than 200 offshore platforms worldwide, including the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Brazilian waters—all extreme environments.

“The corrosion environment of floating offshore wind is actually closer to FPSOs (Floating Production Storage and Offloading units) than to fixed-bottom turbines,” said Wang Jianping, Overseas Technical Director at Huarun Coatings.“Our experience on FPSOs can be directly transferred to floating offshore wind.”

3.1 Dynamic Splash Zone Solution: HR-Dynamic Series

To address the unique conditions of dynamic splash zones, Huarun developed the HR-Dynamic 1000 Series epoxy glass-flake coatings. Key technical breakthroughs include:

Flexible Cross-Linked Network: Introduction of flexible chain segments allows the coating to maintain high adhesion while achieving 12% elongation at break (conventional epoxy: 3–5%), adapting to dynamic bending without cracking

Multi-Layer Flake Orientation: High-pressure airless spraying arranges glass flakes in parallel layers, creating a “maze effect” that extends water diffusion paths by 8×

Enhanced Wet Adhesion: After 3,000 hours of dynamic simulation, wet adhesion retention remains >75%

Verification Data (DNV Witnessed Tests):

Dynamic Bending Fatigue: 1,000,000 cycles at 5% strain, no cracking

Cathodic Disbondment: 30 days at -1.05 V, disbondment width <5 mm

Salt Spray + Wet/Dry Cycles: 2,000 hours, blister rating 0

3.2 Mooring Chain Corrosion Protection: HR-Mooring 500 Series

Corrosion protection for mooring chains cannot rely on coatings alone. Huarun’s solution combines coating + cathodic protection in a synergistic design:

High Abrasion-Resistant Primer: Incorporates nano-ceramic fillers; Taber abrasion index (CS-17 wheel, 1000 g, 1000 cycles) ≤ 80 mg, 65% lower than conventional epoxy

Cathodic Disbondment Resistance: Resin system optimized for hydrogen evolution under cathodic protection; at -1.1 V polarization, 30-day disbondment width < 3 mm

Field Repair Support: Provides underwater-curing repair coatings, applicable in 5°C seawater, meeting on-site damage repair needs during installation

3.3 Dynamic Cable Protection: HR-Cable 200 Flexible Coating

Developed in collaboration with a Norwegian cable manufacturer, HR-Cable 200 is designed for outer sheath protection of dynamic cables:

Adhesion: >8 MPa on cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) substrates

Flexibility: No cracking when bent to 10× cable diameter at -20°C

Hydrolysis Resistance: After 180 days immersion in 70°C seawater, tensile strength retention >85%

四、 Economic Perspective: How Coating Selection Impacts Project IRR

Floating offshore wind is still in a high-cost phase. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in 2024 the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for floating wind is approximately $0.12–0.18/kWh, 2–3 times higher than fixed-bottom wind. In this context, any factor that could cause unplanned downtime can severely affect a project’s internal rate of return (IRR).

“Replacing the mooring chains of a floating wind farm requires large crane vessels, costing $500,000–800,000 per day,” calculated Peterson from DNV.
“If corrosion forces a chain replacement after 15 years, the entire project’s economic model is disrupted.”

Huarun’s corrosion protection solutions are designed from a lifecycle cost (LCC) perspective:

“Clients often ask at first, ‘Why are Huarun’s coatings a bit more expensive?’” said Wang Jianping.
“But once we walk them through the lifecycle cost (LCC) calculation, they understand. In deep-sea environments, the cost of a single unplanned shutdown is enough to buy coatings for the entire wind farm.”

五、 Sustainability: Corrosion Protection as the Biggest Carbon Saver

Huarun’s sustainability strategy has two dimensions: reducing carbon emissions internally and enabling customers to reduce carbon emissions.

Internal Dimension：Suzhou factory now achieves 100% renewable electricity coverage.Carbon emissions per unit product have dropped 32% compared to 2020.Waterborne epoxy products have VOC contents below 50 g/L, well under national standards.

Enabling Customers：A study conducted with Enova (Norway) shows that extending the corrosion protection lifetime of floating offshore wind turbines from 20 to 30 years—for a 1 GW project—results in:

Avoiding one major overhaul, reducing CO₂ emissions by ~42,000 tons

Reducing steel replacement by ~6,800 tons (mooring chains + anchors)

Equivalent carbon sequestration of ~230,000 trees

“Many people don’t realize that corrosion protection is the biggest low-carbon measure,” said Chen Lixin, Sustainability Officer at Huarun Coatings.“Extending an asset’s lifespan by one year reduces resource consumption for the planet. We are not just selling coatings—we are selling the lifespan of assets.”

六、 Conclusion: Corrosion Protection for Floating Offshore Wind—No Ready-Made Answers

Floating offshore wind is still a young industry. Standards for corrosion protection, such as those from IEC and ISO, are still under development, and many technical questions remain unresolved.

“We are collaborating with DNV and ABS to jointly draft testing standards for floating wind turbine coatings,” revealed Zhang Minghua.“This is not a problem that a single company can solve—it requires the entire industry to explore together.”

One thing is certain: as turbines move into deep and distant seas, the importance of corrosion protection will only increase. Coatings that remain intact for 30 years in dynamic corrosive environments will become a key piece in the commercialization of floating offshore wind.

“Huarun’s advantage lies in our 20 years of experience in marine corrosion protection,” said Wang Jianping.“We’ve faced the giant waves of the North Sea, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and the high temperatures of the South China Sea. Now, we are bringing this experience to floating wind. The challenges are tough—but we are not afraid.”

Huarun Technical Center
Technical Consultation: sales09@gd-huaren.net