There are already prototypes operating off the coast of Norway, Portugal and Japan, while a number of companies are working hard to unleash the potential of technologies that could transform wind energy generation.
For countries where the coastal seabed drops steeply, such as Japan and the west coasts of the US and France, traditional offshore turbines fixed to the seafloor are simply not an option.
Not only, then, do floating turbines open up possibilities for wind generation in new places, but they hold some advantages over their fixed counterparts. They can be built and assembled onshore and then towed out to sea, and if repairs are needed they can simply be towed back again, making maintenance easier and cheaper.
As Dr Gordon Edge at Renewable UK says, "they have the potential to reduce costs massively".
For to increase wind power generation, bigger turbines are needed, and these will always be restricted onshore by public opposition, not only to their appearance but to the noise they create - already big blades are often run at sub-optimal speeds onshore to keep the noise down.
Offshore, there are no limits. Stronger winds help bigger turbines generate more power, thereby lowering the unit cost of the electricity they produce.
"For wind energy to really make a difference, it needs to be up-scaled, and to really scale up you have to go offshore, there is no other way," says Jan Matthieson at the UK's Carbon Trust.
Read more at Wind Turbines Sea Change
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