Development and prospects of offshore wind power

Offshore wind power is a useful means to ensure the safety of energy consumption, and to increase the economy and to react to the petroleum crisis. Following with the advance of wind power technology, as well as the advantages in abundance of wind resources, comparatively stable wind speed in the sea, fewer developing interest relative sides, and non-trying for land with other projects, large scale of offshore wind farm building becomes a new trend for wind power industry development. In this journal, the development of offshore wind power was summarized. Then the benefits to development of offshore wind power are analyzed. The current situation of offshore wind power of Europe, North American and Asia are also introduced. At the end, the offshore wind energy trends from shallow to deep sea and technology are prospected.