U.S. company Arctura has published field trial results for its ALP20 wind turbine blade lightning protection coating: during an active storm season, none of the 15 turbines fitted with the new coating sustained blade damage despite recording 35 confirmed lightning strikes. The technology is positioned as a supplement to existing lightning protection systems and is available for both new turbines and those already in service. For wind farm operators, its effectiveness has been validated not by a laboratory model but by a real-world operating fleet.
Key findings:
- The trial covered 123 turbines of various types: 15 with the ALP20 coating and 108 without.
- The coated turbines absorbed 35 lightning strikes — post-season inspection found no blade damage on any of them.
- Uncoated turbines in the same fleet recorded approximately 6.6 damage incidents per 100 lightning strikes.
- ALP20 is manufactured by Mankiewicz Coatings using Arctura’s proprietary ArcGuide technology.
How the field trial was conducted
According to windtech-international.com, an independent operator monitored 123 turbines of mixed types throughout a particularly active storm season. At the end of the season, the fleet was inspected using drones, and damage assessment was carried out by a third-party contractor with no involvement from Arctura. This trial design matters for result integrity: the coating developer had no influence over what was classified as lightning-induced damage.
The 15 turbines fitted with ALP20 recorded 35 lightning strikes over the season. Inspection found no lightning-related blade damage on any of them. The remaining 108 turbines serving as the control group showed damage requiring repair at a rate of approximately 6.6 incidents per 100 strikes.
One turbine provided a particularly instructive case: it sustained lightning damage early in the season, before ALP20 was applied. After mid-season application of the coating, the same turbine absorbed additional documented strikes — including during the season’s most severe storm — with no new blade damage.
What ALP20 and ArcGuide technology are
ALP20 is a blade-tip coating that enhances a turbine’s existing lightning protection system rather than replacing it. It is manufactured by Mankiewicz Coatings based on ArcGuide technology developed by Arctura. The coating is offered for both new turbine models and units already in the field, making it applicable as a retrofit solution. This matters because blade manufacturing and maintenance technologies are precisely what determine how flexibly an operator can adapt a fleet to local operating conditions.
Development and validation of the technology received partial support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research program (DOE SBIR) and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. The SBIR program requires independent peer review at each phase — an additional external quality filter before the product enters field deployment.
What this means for wind farm operators
Lightning blade damage means work at height, turbine downtime, and spare-parts logistics. The difference between zero damage across 35 strikes in the coated group and approximately 6.6 incidents per 100 strikes in the control group translates directly into fewer downtime hours and fewer repairs — provided the result holds up across larger sample sizes and longer observation periods.
It is worth noting the study’s limitations: a sample of 15 coated turbines is small, and the observation window covers a single season. For operators, this is a signal to watch for expanded trials and results from other fleets, not a final recommendation to procure.
Sources: windtech-international.com
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