I gave 6m/s and 8m/s as realistic numbers to show the dramatic increase with a little bit more speed. Further offshore you can have average annual speeds over

I gave 6m/s and 8m/s as realistic numbers to show the dramatic increase with a little bit more speed. Further offshore you can have average annual speeds over 10m/s (This time, a roughly x4.5 increase in revenue compared to 6m/s) [0]. The large turbines typically operate up to 25m/s and then shut down for safety. Really large offshore turbines operate ideally at an average of 11m/s [1]. You can also see some real data here [2]. However, what investors (or farm operators) really care about it LCOE. Levelized cost of Energy over the lifetime of the machine. It's that $50/MWh and considers the revenue (roughly proportional to v^3) and all the costs. After that it's an optimization game: - Too far = costly maintenance, costly installation, longer cables, rougher seas - Too close = not enough wind (but "cheap" installation) (Plus many other important factors: risk, incentives, NIMBY, access to capital, wind turbulence, etc, etc) [0] https://goo.gl/images/NFny2a https://goo.gl/images/NFny2a [1] http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uceseug/Fluids2/Wind_Turbines/Turbines/V164-8MW.pdf http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uceseug/Fluids2/Wind_Turbine... [2] http://www.wind-power-program.com/large_turbines.htm http://www.wind-power-program.com/large_turbines.htm