Offshore wind is too expensive!/The Ecologist

Prices paid in the UK to solar and wind generators will change to favour offshore wind at the expense of the others. Jim Platt warns that the policy is doomed to failure – offshore wind is just too expensive, and likely to remain so.

Building things in the middle of the sea is very, very expensive, and that isn’t going to change.

In 2012 the global wind industry manufactured and installed more than 20,000 turbines generating 45GW of energy. The leading firm alone, Danish company Vestas, installed more than 6GW of this via 2,500 turbines.

The company’s offerings centre on a ‘workhorse’ platform that supports turbines from 1.8MW to 3MW and rotor sizes from 80-112m in diameter, to meet the needs of different sites with different wind conditions and remain cost effective.

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2188848/offshore_wind_is_too_expensive.html