Thursday, July 17, 2008

Does wind power float your boat?

The innovation in ocean energy continues with Blue H's new floating wind turbine. A prototype is due to launch later this month, 12 miles of the Italian coast. Conveniently, that's just on the edge of the territorial sea, placing the turbine at the confluence of Italian and EU jurisdiction. You may know Blue H as the company that's developing a (non-floating) deepwater wind farm off the Massachusetts coast.

It's great to see that companies (primarily European ones) are continuing to invest in product development. That's no small investment, but we're not at the mousetrap stage yet for ocean energy; we need to keep testing and trying to find devices that work for both marine life and efficient power production. Is it time for an American EMEC--a single testing facility for new devices--rather than our current gold rush permitting process?

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