This is an excerpt from the Third Quarter 2012 edition of the Wind Program R&D Newsletter.

In October 2009, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, began an effort to develop recommended practices for design, deployment, and operation of offshore wind turbines in the United States. This effort was motivated by concerns that no single set of guidelines and standards could be identified that addressed the complete design, deployment, and operation of offshore wind turbines, and because unique conditions exist in the United States that cannot be directly compared to conditions at European offshore wind facilities.

This effort, known as the Large Turbine Compliance Guidelines Initiative, enlisted more than 50 expert stakeholders in the offshore wind community to develop a consensus document, AWEA Offshore Compliance Recommended Practices 2012 . Known more briefly as AWEA OCRP2012, the document recommends good practices in the use of existing standards for planning, designing, constructing, and operating offshore wind facilities in U.S. waters.

The AWEA OCRP2012 Committee draft went out to U.S. offshore wind stakeholders for review and comment this summer. The committee addressed all comments in a meeting at AWEA's WINDPOWER 2012 and submitted a final draft to the AWEA Standards Coordinating Committee that oversees the initiative. AWEA plans to release the document at its 2012 Offshore WINDPOWER Conference in Virginia Beach, Virginia, October 9 – 11.