Where No Wind Turbine Has Gone Before

If wind power is to help make electricity generation using fossil fuels an anachronism, we've got to find places for a lot more wind turbines. Rather than put them in competition for space on land, engineers are designing turbines capable of harnessing the wind while moored on the bodies of water that cover more than two-thirds of Earth's surface. The 80-meter-long, 35-meter-high Haiyou Guanlan, shown here awaiting launch, is a floating wind-power platform that is the first power tower that will be situated more than 100 kilometers offshore. The mammoth renewable energy generator, which is designed to yield 22 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, will deliver that energy to the machinery at China's offshore oil fields.