Europeans Plan Floating Windmills for North Sea
They are loathed as blights on the landscape and menaces to migrating birds. But a new partnership between two European innovators could create wind turbines that can float on the ocean's surface. Norwegian energy group Norsk Hydro and German engineering firm Siemens recently announced that they have joined forces to research and build a floating wind turbine. Currently, windmills have to be built on land or in shallow off-shore seabed sites, where they often generate complaints that they spoil the landscape, and concerns that the turbines batter birdlife. A floating windmill could be placed far out at sea. Hydro hopes to have a prototype operating in the North Sea by 2009. It is projected to cost 200 million Norwegian kroner (25.2 million euros or $34.3 million), although the project's finances have yet to be agreed on. Hydro has already spent 30 million kroner on developing its floatation technology. Siemens says it will spend several million euros on the project over the next two years. If all goes well, the partnership is hoping to have an off-shore wind energy field set up by 2013, using 5 megawatt wind turbines.
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