Wind power got a huge vote of confidence earlier this week when what is often described as the most influential newspaper in the English-language world published a story saying the industry has made huge improvements in the past 15 years.

In a story headlined “Wind Power Gains as Gear Improves,” The New York Times article also said experts acknowledge that even greater improvements in wind technology are planned for the future.

Texas, the US leader in installed wind energy capacity, may soon be boasting offshore wind facilities as well.

Baryonyx Corporation, an Austin-based company, has ambitious plans to build three offshore wind farms near South Padre Island and Corpus Christi.

According to The Brownsville Herald, Baryonyx submitted in June its project permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which will almost certainly call for an environmental impact statement, a process that could take almost three years to complete.

Can you imagine something 100 metres tall? That’s the length of one football pitch, four normal public swimming pools, or the height of a basketball hoop from the floor, 33 times over.

That’s how high the offshore turbines being installed today are. And Europe is installing more and more of them in its waters – 101 were put up and grid connected in the first six months of 2011 alone.

They may not make the headlines very often, but the EU-funded projects EWEA is involved in are key to driving the industry forward.

Frequently involving a wide range of experts and years of work, EWEA projects carry out important studies and research into areas of wind energy that are vital for the functioning of a future power system based on renewables.

By Raha Obaei

The UK government has called for ambitious goals on offshore wind energy in the government’s ‘UK Renewable Energy Roadmap’, published on Tuesday. The targets – for 18 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2020 instead of 13 GW called for by the Committee on Climate Change, a government advisory body – have been made with the hopes of making the UK one of the largest offshore wind power hubs in the world.