Texas Firm Gets Permit for Offshore Wind Platform Test

Dallas, TX, September 30, 2011 --(PR.com)-- The company will install its Titan 200 model platform in the fall of 2012 at a depth of about 45 metres in state-owned waters. The company is talking with several manufacturers for supply of one or more turbines for the test programme.

Offshore Wind Power Systems is now completing the final engineering certification process through the American Bureau of Shipping and other related third-party organisations. ABS is responsible for certifying 95% of jack-up platforms in operation worldwide.

Plans call for one year of load and environmental testing of the platform, and a possible retrofit to allow installation of a 200-metre-high meteorological tower.

A company official says that there is a possibility of running those tests concurrently, given interest among potential buyers in a second platform being built. The second unit would function as a full-scale data gathering device for the wind turbine certification test process.

The Army Corps permit does not allow the company to connect the platform and any eventual turbine with the onshore grid, as doing this would require approvals from Texas and federal regulatory authorities.

The company says it will provide more details on the test programme and where the Titan 200 platform will be built. It recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to negotiate supply of a platform to offshore wind developer Eolica Brasil for meteorological testing in the Atlantic Ocean off the state of Ceara.

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