HyWind

Have you ever seen a wind farm ? If in Europe, probably yes. If in other countries, perhaps.

For me, it's a bit curious that people in Norway think that they affect negatively the landscape. Ok, Norwegian landscapes are amazing thus why to screw it all up if you could put wind turbines somewhere else?

StatoilHydro, not only due to "not in my backyard" sentiment, is investing around USD 80 million in a full scale offshore floating wind turbine. Siemens is a project partner. 

The system can work in more than 100 meters depth and combines two proven technologies: floating concrete sub-structure (such as ships) and offshore wind turbines. The potential is the electrification of offshore installations and 

Seems that wind is stronger, vaster and more consistent offshore.

 I got to know the project while visiting StatoilHydro in June. It seems awesome, but it's still in the second out of 4 stages of R&D. So there is a long way up to become a business case. 

Something I noticed was that the major offshore sites for wind turbines are located close to developed countries coastline, like Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. Therefore close to the consumption sites.