The Netherlands ready to conquest far offshore

The Netherlands government has launched an ambitious program to develop offshore wind energy and to reinforce wind energy industry. This program has 4 objectives to reach: 1) to install 6000 MW offshore wind turbines by 2020 with about 50% of the turbines installed 50 km away from the coast, 2) to have reduced the costs of offshore development by 40% compared to the 2010 costs, 3) to lead a research and development program to increase turbine efficiency, to improve the anchoring and the foundation of offshore wind turbines, to improve the connection to the grid, to improve the technologies used in deep water, and 4) to build a wind turbine farm 75 km away from the coast with a sea depth of 35 m. (A.C.)