December 26, 2017

Suzlon and associates commission their first Operational Offshore Met Station in the Arabian Sea

• Installed at 16 kilometers (kms) from the shore at south west of Jakhau port in Kutch, Gujarat
• The LiDAR based met station is expected to collect data for a period of two years.
• Met station will be powered by solar energy

India: Suzlon Group, India’s largest renewable energy solutions provider along with associates commissioned their first Operational Offshore Met Station in the Arabian Sea.

Suzlon group is actively working on offshore wind energy technology and has initiated techno-commercial feasibility study. 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, have installed their first Operational Offshore LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) based wind measurement station in the Arabian Sea, south west of Jakhau port in Kutch, Gujarat. The met station is expected to collect data for a period of two years.

The offshore wind data collection platform is installed at about 16 kms from the shore in the territorial waters of Gujarat under the control of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) at a water depth of about 11 meters (w.r.t Chart Datum), where the tidal range is 4 meters (m). The support platform is at a height of about 14m above water level. Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) has provided the project with valuable insights about sea properties during various seasons, navigation routes apart from administrative permissions and facilitation.

The unmanned met station will be powered by solar energy and will be remotely monitored for maintenance needs. Engineers will visit the site for general inspection periodically and cater to the servicing needs in case of a breakdown.

Additionally, an onshore mast of 150m has also been installed for validation / correlation purposes.

J.P. Chalasani, Group CEO, Suzlon Group said, “Given India’s coastline of 7,600 kms, 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 5 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind power capacities next year is a progressive move and will help the industry achieve the target of having 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022.Having pioneered the wind industry in India, it is indeed a proud moment for us to commission our first Operational Offshore Met Station. 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.”

About Suzlon Group:

The Suzlon Group is one of the leading renewable energy solutions providers in the world with an international presence across 18 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and North and South America. With over two decades of operational track record, the Group has a cumulative installation of approximately 17 GW of wind energy capacity, over 8,200 employees with diverse nationalities and world-class manufacturing facilities. Suzlon is the only Indian wind energy company with a large in-house Research and Development (R&D) set-up in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and India. Over 11 GW of the Group’s installation is in India, which makes up for ~35% of the country’s wind installations, making Suzlon the largest player in this sector. The company has recently forayed into the solar space. The Group, headquartered at Suzlon One Earth in Pune, India, is comprised of Suzlon Energy Limited and its subsidiaries. Suzlon corporate website: www.suzlon.com .