Generating Wind Mills Energy Offshore

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Marine wind turbines = The future solution of wind powered energy supply?

With the explosion of popularity in large wind turbine projects, areas of development are being evaluated daily for their overall wind potential to support these wind powered energy solutions. Even though many of these windmill power projects are being installed in remote areas, planners are looking into more offshore locations than ever before in the hopes of exploiting locations that are perfect for a marine wind turbine and won't raise complaints from landowners.

Advantages of offshore generated wind mills energy

What makes these offshore locations so attractive is the perfect combination of strong consistent winds and the lower cost of location than many land based alternatives. When a power utility company is trying to locate a wind farm on a location, they need to secure rights to use the land from its owner. In some cases this involves a lease from either a private owner or the government if it is federal land. Other times the utility company will purchase the land outright to build the wind powered energy project. All of these solutions require a large outlay of capital for the initial acquisition of the land needed to support the project. This makes many of these projects too expensive from the start to make sense for the utility.

An offshore location eliminates this large initial cost to the utility and may involve a long-term lease with a state or country for use of the land below the water. Many of these projects are located a few miles offshore on land that is owned by the local government. Even though these locations are technically in the water, the towers have to be mounted on the seabed floor and this requires permission and compensation to the local state or government. This lease is usually negotiated for long periods of time so that these marine wind turbine solutions have time to generate enough capital to justify the project.

These offshore locations are proving to be the ideal location for a windmill power solution. If they are located far enough offshore, they are virtually invisible to bathers and boaters near the shore and this can help to minimize complaints about these types of projects. Since they are a passive solution, they generate no unwelcome chemicals or side effects that can harm the marine environment or the wildlife that calls this area home. Most shoreline locations also enjoy a good steady breeze as well that can drive these wind powered energy installations on a very consistent basis to help them generate their maximum power. Also, the cabling needed to transmit the windmills energy to the mainland can be laid on the floor of the ocean and hidden from view naturally.

Over the past 12 months there have been several large offshore wind farms installed and because of their success there are several others being planned for this year as well. One of these installations being approved can provide enough electricity to power 50,000 homes for a year by using the wind. This represents a major step forward for wind power and proves that these offshore locations are ideal for projects like these.