Leading manufacturer of towers and flanges for the wind sector, GRI Renewable Industries and world-leading supplier of coating solutions, Hempel are teaming up in a strategic partnership to cooperate around innovative solutions to increase efficiency in processes and equipment for sur-face protection of wind turbines.

The new strategic partnership is a further strengthening of a long-term cooperation between the two companies as they expand the scope to include research & development on potential innovative products; trying to minimise the cost of surface treatment for wind turbines while guaranteeing high quality. Hempel continues to support GRI Renewable Industries remaining competitive throughout the entire process.

“At Hempel we like to innovate together with our customers, and we continue support GRI Renewable Industries reaching their business and sustainability targets. Therefore, we are pleased to extend our long-term relationship to also include research and innovation,” says Michael Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer at Hempel, and continues; “GRI Renewable Industries is very skilled within tower manufacturing and tower design, and this coupled with Hempel’s expertise in coatings and surface treatment processes makes this a good partnership in terms of exploring innovative solutions for the renewable energy industry with lower VOC* and less time spent on sur-face treatment preparation.”

“GRI Renewable Industries continues to rely on one of its trusted suppliers, optimising our processes and complying with our ambitious sustainability goals,” says Pedro Velasco, Chief Supply Chain Officer at GRI Renewable Industries.

The collaboration between GRI Renewable Industries and Hempel also includes the University of Sevilla. The strategic partnership is focused on sustainability and prolonging the lifetime of wind towers. The ambition is to reduce surface treatment cost by 10 per cent and lowering VOC by up to 50 per cent. The first steps in the new cooperation around research & development will take place between GRI Renewable Industries’ R&D facility in Sevilla, and Hempel’s laboratories in Barcelona and Denmark. From here research and testing of different coating solutions will be undertaken to explore what coating solution will best match GRI Renewable Industries’ needs.

The University of Sevilla participates under the umbrella of the project Andalusia, Alentejo and Algarve innovation Centre (CIU3A), a project which is co-financed 75 per cent by the European Regional Development Fund, Programme of Cooperación Interreg VA Spain - Portugal 2014-2020.This is one of the Innovation Centres that the University of Seville plans to launch in the cur-rent mandate of Government Team, which will be complemented by three innovation centres in Aeronautics, Agri-food and Energy and Mobility.

* VOCs (Volatile organic compounds) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids, and include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects.

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