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There are many critics of offshore wind farms citing that the installation cost is overpowering and the power generation is sketchy ....which means "no wind, no power". However as we enter the Hybrid generation era, this form of power has become one of the great possibilities and capable of providing clean energy at an affordable cost.
We say at an affordable cost because this nascent technology developed is going through its first stage of evolution when the land based plants have started moving offshore doubling the generation capacity and providing better wind consistency to power grids uniformly at all hours. The problem will be further solved when the offshore floating plants take root that can be much more stable for round the clock generation and commercially viable once they start getting installed on floating platforms at high seas away from the coast.
Several times this year turbines at German wind farms generated so much power that consumers were paid to consume electricity in order to balance the grid as per a Bloomberg Report earlier this year. The report goes to say that Germany has since 2002 added 22,000 KW of wind power, as a result of which 7.5% of total generation in Germany ( which incidentally has nuclear power as an option it no longer uses) is from wind energy today. The current challenge for Germany is to stabilize wind power, not to produce it, something it will be able to achieve when offshore wind farms move further ( 30 to 50 miles ) out into the sea.
Whereas European plants are way ahead in tapping offshore wind power, especially in the North Sea , and China is setting up several such plants, the scene in the US and the rest of Asia however shows little or no development. India for example today has the top wind power manufacturers setting up plants in the country but no pro-active policy on offshore wind power as a result of which 4 projects are still far from the starting block, despite having a 6000 mile coastline
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