India’s renewable energy solutions provider Suzlon Group has launched its first Operational Offshore Met Station in the Arabian Sea.
The first Operational Offshore Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) based wind measurement station has been installed at 16kms from the shore at south west of Jakhau port in Kutch, Gujarat.
The installation has been carried out by Suzlon along with its associates, under the guidance from National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chennai and approvals through National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) Chennai.
Designed to collect data for two-year period, the LiDAR based offshore wind data collection platform is deployed at a water depth of about 11m, where the tidal range is 4m.
Powered by solar energy, the unmanned met station will be remotely monitored for maintenance needs. The team has also installed an onshore mast of 150m for validation/correlation purposes.
Suzlon Group group CEO Chalasani said: “Given India’s coastline of 7,600kms, the country has enormous potential for offshore wind energy and it can potentially repeat the success achieved in onshore wind energy.
“The government’s plan to auction 5GW offshore wind power capacities next year is a progressive move and will help the industry achieve the target of having 175GW renewable energy capacity by 2022.
“The installation of the offshore wind met station will aid in better assessment of offshore wind and will lead the way in harnessing India’s vast offshore wind energy potential.”
Suzlon said it is working on offshore wind energy technology and techno-commercial feasibility study.