OPT plans move to bigger manufacturing facility

US-based wave developer Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) will relocate to new corporate headquarters and manufacturing center in New Jersey.

OPT’s new facility located in Monroe will offer approximately 56,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space, nearly doubling the size of its current facility, the company said.

According to OPT, the larger space will support its increased operational needs, and also allow for its projected growth over the next several years.

George Kirby, OPT’s President and CEO, said: “We are seeing increasing interest for our PB3 PowerBuoy in specific applications, mainly around support for offshore oil and gas subsea operations and metocean applications, as well as within our other target markets.

“Given the significant limitations of our current location, in combination with certain contractual opportunities with our current facility lease, we arrived at the strategic decision to relocate our corporate headquarters which allows us to dramatically expand our manufacturing capabilities.”

Mike Mekhiche, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Operations at OPT, added: “We believe this new facility will enable us to implement world class assembly and testing processes, emphasizing product quality and employee safety, while significantly increasing product through-put. We are planning to carry out the move in the latter part of this calendar year with minimal impact to business operations.”

OPT has developed a PB3 PowerBuoy that harvests the energy of the waves, and can act as both power and communication platform for remote offshore applications.