Popular Mechanics: Can Offshore Grids Solve Our Wind Power Woes? - by Andrew Moseman

Offshore Wind Farm on Danish Coast

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Can Offshore Grids Solve Our Wind Power Woes? - by Andrew Moseman

The European Commission met last month to discuss linking all the European Union countries together in a continental supergrid. No, they're not planning to the spend millions (perhaps even billions) of Euros it would cost to install powerlines across land borders. Europeans are looking offshore—to connect their growing supply of offshore wind power with a grid spanning the Baltic Sea, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Europe is well on the way to its goal of drawing 20 percent of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020. Twenty-five offshore wind farms spread between Ireland, the U.K., Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands already produce 1100 megawatts of power, and more than 20 new projects have been approved in Germany. While winds are stronger and more consistent at sea, they're still not foolproof. If a breeze fails, a local grid can turn to other energy sources to bridge the gap. That won't work if a country draws a large proportion of its power from renewables, says Frauke Thies of Greenpeace's European Unit. Linking wind farms along the coast could solve this problem by offering some insurance against the vagaries of Mother Nature: Odds are good that, if wind stops blowing in one region, it will be windy somewhere along Europe's ample coastlines. On a small scale, this is already happening. An undersea transmission cable that cost nearly euro 600 million spans the 370-plus miles between Norway and the Netherlands, allowing the two countries to trade power. Thies's Greenpeace unit published a plan in September for a grid to link seven countries on the North Sea.