Battling Blade Icing with Phazebreak Coatings

This Uptime Wind Energy Podcast interview features host Allen Hall speaking with Aaron Dupuis, Director of Marketing at Phazebreak Coatings, about their ice phobic coating called Neinice that helps prevent icing on wind turbine blades. The coating contains microscopic phase change materials that absorb heat from liquid water as it freezes, preventing ice buildup so the turbines can continue operating in icy conditions. Aaron explains how the coating is applied, how long it lasts, how it has performed in tests, and how it can be used in conjunction with existing deicing systems. He also discusses how partnering with Aerones and their inspection robots has helped optimize application time and efficiency. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Phazebreak Coatings - https://www.phazebreak.com/Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Wind turbine icing is a massive problem. Most wind turbines in the U. S. and Northern Europe are installed in locations that are susceptible to icing. And yet a significant number of the wind turbines do not have any de icing system. Our guest today is Aaron Dupuis, Director of Marketing at Phazebreak Coatings. And Phasebreak Coatings produces Neinice, the ice phobic coating that is being used on wind turbines to keep them humming during icing conditions. The coating contains a microscopic phase change materials that absorb heat from the liquid water as it freezes. This heat prevents the water from freezing solid and the ice does not form easily and it sheds off the surface. I'm really interested in learning more about phase break during this podcast. Aaron, welcome to the program. Aaron Dupuis: Thank you very much, Allen. I really appreciate it. Allen Hall: So we all know from the icing events that happened in Texas, because that's a very noticeable event, that obviously Texas does not have de icing systems on their wind turbine blades as they readily admit. And why, and why would they, honestly? Aaron Dupuis: Why would they? You wouldn't expect you'd need it. Allen Hall: No, you, you shouldn't really need it. It's what's once every hundred years they may have an ice storm. But they've had two ice storms in about a five year period. So it, it is actually a lot more common than we thought. And that left to hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars lost and dea...