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last and lower its legs during towing and jacking operations thereby lowering the center of gravity and extending the meta- centric height of the platform and turbinemakes the platform more stable in higher winds and waves. This opens the acceptable installation weather window significantly, thus shortening project timelines.In the event of serious storm or ship damages to the platform or a gearbox orgenerator needs to be replaced, the Titan can be brought back to the dock for re-pairs; jacket and monopile foundations cannot, and the maintenance work can be performed using land-based equipment.The delivered, uninstalled cost of the Titan appears to fall below the cost of a delivered, uninstalled jacket foundation designed to carry similar loads (if you in-clude the weight of the jacket?s four steel piles and the transition top piece). Fabri- cation of the Titan for a .6 MW turbine uses roughly 1,00 tons of steel. The Titan?s weight for a 5 MW turbine only increases slightly to 1,800 tons, andfor a 10 MW turbine the weight rises toonly 2,000 tons. This puts the Titan at around M USD installed for a 5 MW turbine in 0 meters of water. These figures assume that the Titan platforms are shipped 20 at a time. Proj- ect delivery windows will vary, but it is easily conceivable to ship as many as 20 foundations every 5 days. There is one more cost advantage that should be mentioned, the developer can use the Titan to his advantage in two ways. First, he can purchase a Titan plat- form designed for the turbine he intends to install later. e can install the met mast on the platform and use it to take wind measurements for a year. After the wind measurement task is completed, hecan bring the Titan back to the dock, re- move the met mast from the platform and replace it with a turbine, recovering the cost he would have otherwise spent on a met mast foundation. The Titan is flexi- ble enough to accommodate such achange.SUMMAThe Titan provides an exciting oppor- tunity to change the game for offshore wind farms and investors. The advan- tages are plentiful, and the technology it-self is very mature. And don?t underestimate the importance of matureregulatory statutes already in place for platforms such as these, as this helps tominimie the investment risk to the proj- ect.The highest cost drivers on other foun- dations are more difficult to estimate due to the unpredictable nature of theweather. But the Titan eliminates the cost of over-the-water construction equipment and their associated liabilityinsurance costs, and reduces the unpre-dictable cost of paying for equipmentwhile waiting for the weather to improve. September 2011www.marinelink.com 49About the AuthorWally afferty is the former Vice President and Managing Director for Vestas Wind Systems, responsible for Technology D in North America. Wally can be reached at wally.laffertyyahoo.com. Offshore Wind Power Systems of Texas LLC. Tel 1-682-6-0652 www.offshorewindpowersystemsoftexas.com