Scottish Seas Will Host the World's Largest Floating Wind Farm

Offshore wind farms are venturing out of the shallows.

Conventional turbines sit on a tower affixed to the ground, which makes it hard to reach the high winds out on the open seas. As of Monday, the Norwegian energy company Statoil has secured a lease to set up five 6-megawatt turbines 15 miles off the eastern coast of Scotland, The Guardian reports. Conventional wind turbines get prohibitively expensive at depths beyond 40 meters, but this pilot program will set up shop in 100 meters of North Sea brine.