New field results put Arctura’s lightning-protection coating to the test — with 35 lightning flashes and zero confirmed new damage.  

PROVIDENCE, RI – August 24, 2026 –

Lightning is the leading cause of wind turbine blade failure worldwide, accounting for roughly 60% of blade losses. In the United States alone, lightning-related blade repairs were estimated to cost more than $255 million in 2025.

Slater portfolio company Arctura has spent years developing a different approach to the problem. Its ALP20 coating, based on the company’s ArcGuide® technology, is applied around a turbine blade’s existing lightning receptor and is designed to help lightning attach where it is supposed to — at the receptor — rather than puncturing and damaging the blade.

Previous laboratory testing predicted that ALP20 could reduce lightning-induced blade punctures by 73%. Now, results from a large field deployment are providing evidence of how the technology performs on operating wind turbines in real-world lightning conditions.

35 Lightning Flashes. Zero Confirmed New Damage.

During the 2025–2026 lightning season, ALP20 was deployed on 15 turbines at a 123-turbine wind farm in the Asia-Pacific region.

It turned out to be an exceptionally active lightning season. The site recorded 306 turbine-level lightning events across 19 storms. Following the season, all 123 turbines underwent a fleet-wide drone inspection conducted by a third-party inspection provider contracted by the wind farm operator. Damage identification and severity grading were performed using the provider’s standard classification system, without involvement from the paper’s authors.

The results were striking.

Fourteen of the 15 ALP20-coated turbines were hit by lightning at least once, absorbing a total of 35 flashes. Inspectors found zero confirmed new lightning damage on the coated blades.

The untreated turbines experienced something very different. Ninety-one unprotected turbines absorbed 198 flashes, with 13 turbines sustaining new repair-level lightning damage — a rate of 6.6 damage findings per 100 flashes.

 

Protection	Turbines	Lightning Flashes	Turbines with New Damage	Damage per 100 Flashes
ALP20	15	35	0*	0
Untreated	91	198	13	6.6

*One annotation on an ALP20-coated turbine remains under review to determine whether it represents lightning damage or leading-edge erosion.

Just as importantly, the coated turbines weren’t avoiding lightning.

They averaged 2.33 flashes per turbine compared with 2.18 for the untreated turbines, a difference that was statistically indistinguishable. The finding supports ALP20’s intended function: it doesn’t stop turbines from being struck. It changes how the lightning attaches to the blade, helping the existing lightning protection system do its job.

One Turbine Tells the Story

Within the larger study was an especially compelling before-and-after example.

One turbine began the season without ALP20 and was repeatedly struck by lightning during October and November, sustaining documented damage.

Arctura’s coating was applied to the turbine in mid-November.

The same turbine was then struck four more times, including during the largest storm of the season.

No further damage was found.

From the Lab to the Field

The field results build on years of development and testing by Arctura.

Earlier full-scale laboratory testing found that ALP20-coated blades sustained punctures in 6.7% of strikes compared with 20.8% for blades with a standard topcoat — a 68% reduction. A model combining those laboratory results with real-world lightning attachment angles subsequently predicted a 73% reduction in field puncture rates.
The new field results are consistent with those predictions, but the work continues. The researchers note that a single season involving 15 coated turbines does not yet provide conventional statistical significance. Another monitored season at comparable exposure is expected to provide substantially more evidence.

There is already a growing field record. ALP20 has also been deployed on eight turbines at wind farms in New Jersey and Illinois since 2022. After three lightning seasons, periodic drone inspections have found no reported lightning-induced blade damage and no measurable coating degradation, although strike exposure at those sites has not been independently verified.

For Arctura, the latest results represent an important step: technology developed and validated in the laboratory is now being tested against the unpredictable conditions it was created to address.

And after 35 documented lightning flashes on ALP20-coated turbines, the first large-scale field results are promising: zero confirmed new lightning damage.