Why look off shore for wind energy systems?
A. There are a number of factors that influence the performance of a wind energy system. These includes: wind shear, turbulence, wake effect, and tunnel effect. These factors can lower the overall performance of as wind energy system and are evident to a lesser degree offshore. This coupled with higher wind speeds offshore increase the potential performance of offshore wind energy systems. With equivalent offshore and onshore wind energy systems (same MW capacity), an off shore wind energy system will produce more energy over the year.
