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it must be developed fairly quickly and a central question is how it should be financed."

"We must ensure that the growth trend in wind energy continues,"

The request for Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling must be answered with an unequivocal no. The stakes are too high for political faades to continue standing in place of progressive economic solutions. Of course, this argument is one that will surely be issued from both sides, but considering the lack of evidence in support of the drilling, it seems poorly suited for those with their eyes on coastal waters.

John Hutton, business secretary, will outline at a conference in Berlin proposals to create 25 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2020 in addition to that under construction.

KEMA, in partnership with the civil engineering firm Bureau Lievense and technology illustrators Rudolph and Robert Das, has developed an "Energy Island" concept to store power generated from an offshore wind farm. The concept design is the initial result of an on-going feasibility study being conducted for Dutch energy companies.

t was a huge event, with close to 2,000 participants and a palpable energy and a sense of - finally - progress. The conference was attended by the ministers for energy or senior political representatives  from several countries (the UK, Germany, several Nordic countries - see the link above) and happened at the same time as an important German government meeting that decided to increase offshore tariffs to 14c/kWh, a strongly supportive measure which is likely to be the starting point of a massive wave of investment in the sector in that country. Interestingly, despite that decision, and the excitement it generated, the UK market is still seen as likely to be bigger than the German one over the next 10-15 years, with all other markets being somewhat smaller.

This report provides a Europe-wide resource assessment of onshore and offshore wind potential in a geographically explicit manner. In addition to calculating raw wind resource potential, this study also introduces and quantitatively analyses the environmental and social constraints on wind sector development. Concerns addressed include the noise and visual impact of wind power, as well as the deaths of birds and bats that fly into rotor blades. The report also evaluates the future costs of wind energy production across Europe in order to gauge the potential output at competitive rates.

StatoilHydro has decided to build the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period offshore Karmøy. The The company is investing approximately 400 million NOK. Planned startup is autumn 2009.

Germany's first offshore wind power park, Alpha Venture in the North Sea, has begun the gradual commissioning of the first three of its total 12 turbines, a spokesman for the venture said on Wednesday.