We tend to think of the mechanical efficiency of energy conversion devices - how much wind energy can a wind turbine catch and turn into mechanical energy and finally into electricity? But the driving factor is usually the final cost of the energy.
Wind turbines like a fair amount of wind and it is useful to put them in spots where the wind is usually blowing and the landscape is flat to lower boundary layer turbulance. Offshore turbines seem idea and, indeed have become popular in parts of Europe, but they are also expensive to build.
Greg notes some interesting work at Cambridge that could bring a big change to the economics of offshore wind...
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