Offshore windfarms 'can provide more electricity than the world needs'Supplies from turbines will prove to be the next great energy revolution, IEA predicts
I think offshore wind is a great idea, and no doubt it should be pursued, yet I am sometimes doubtful of the political powers pushing for it over onshore wind energy. In germany, for example, it pretty much looks like the government wants to push onshore wind energy out of business, basically because it is too successful.
The change to renewable energy supply offers a great opportunity to democratize and decentralize the power production. If every house has its solar panels on the rooftop and every town its wind turbine, there is no central large scale asset that a single entity can solely profit off on the cost of everyone else.
It looks like this is a scenario that is not overly attractive for those with the power to set political policies. Instead these try to steer the transition in the direction of large scale, centralized industry projects, no matter the costs. Thus, while we definitely should look into exploiting offshore wind park opportunities, I do not see, why we should abondon our onshore efforts, where it is much cheaper to install and operate turbines.