ArcelorMittal at Wind Europe Bilbao

9 April 2024

From March 20th to 22nd, ArcelorMittal played a significant role in Wind Europe’s annual event held in Bilbao, Spain. Our team of experts engaged in three panel sessions, contributing valuable insights to the wind industry.

• Stephane Tondo, Head of Climate Change - Governmental Affairs, participated in the session “Can the wind industry reduce its dependency from Asia?”. 
• Jose Manuel Carvalho, Head of Renewable Energy Business, participated in the session “Electrifying transport, heat and industry with wind” in the part “Electrifying industry / steel”
• Denis Parein, Sales and Marketing director Heavy plates Europe participated in the session “Floating offshore wind” in the part “Mobilising Industry through Auctions and Volume”

These sessions provided great opportunities of knowledge exchange, collaboration, and forward-thinking discussions. ArcelorMittal remains committed to advancing sustainable solutions in the wind energy sector.

Supply chain collaboration: a path forward

In parallel, the Wind Europe “Offshore wind supply chain workshop” provided a constructive and collaborative exchange forum  where key actors from the European wind industry engaged in discussions about overcoming challenges across different development phases, from bid preparation to decommissioning.  
Nicolas Messias, ArcelorMittal Segment Leader for Wind, had the possibility to exchange on the challenges inherent to the European steel industry (steel being the main material in volume on wind projects) in a context of growing demand related to offshore wind, decarbonisation, and recent evolution of the European legislative environment (NZIA, CRMA, …).   

This workshop was a more than welcome initiative, well-organised by WindEurope, which allowed, by involving such a diversity of stakeholders, to foster a collaborative and inclusive approach paving the way to innovative solutions for rapid scaling up of offshore wind installations.

ArcelorMittal’s saline resistant weathering steel: a breakthrough in offshore applications

The Wind Europe event in Bilbao showcased an array of research posters, each delving into diverse topics and offering delegates a chance to engage with authors and explore their work. Among these, ArcelorMittal’s poster on saline resistant weathering steel, created by Krista Van den Bergh, Senior Project Engineer, ArcelorMittal Global R&D Gent, stood out, earning recognition and an award.

Offshore environments pose unique challenges for steel structures due to the aggressive conditions induced by seawater and atmospheric chlorides.

ArcelorMittal’s research and development efforts led to the creation of a cost-effective corrosion-resistant steel substrate. Key findings include:

• Strength achievement: mechanical characterization revealed that a S420 strength level can be comfortably achieved for plates of 20 mm thickness. Moreover, this strength level remains within reach even for plates as thick as 50 mm.
• Real-world testing: the focus now shifts to corrosion testing of the industrially produced saline resistant weathering grade. Special attention is given to atmospheric exposure testing at marine locations.

David Quidort R&D engineer for Industeel participated and presented a poster on another critical topic: high-strength offshore steel plates. These plates, with a yield strength of 690 MPa, play a vital role in the elevating system of jack-up installation vessels used for offshore wind projects.

As the number of offshore wind projects continues to surge, there’s a growing need for high-end jack-up installation vessels capable of handling the demands of larger wind turbines. These vessels must withstand harsh marine conditions while ensuring safe and efficient installation.

Industeel has developed a range of 690 MPa offshore structural steel plates specifically designed for this purpose. These plates, with thicknesses ranging from 210 mm to 250 mm, provide the necessary strength and durability for the elevating systems of modern wind turbine installation vessels. As the offshore wind industry scales up, these high-strength steel plates will continue to play a pivotal role in supporting clean energy generation.