Offshore wind power is an emerging technology capable of providing coastal cities, states, and countries with a substantial portion of their energy needs. The vast potential of offshore wind power has not been fully explored. This work endeavors to perform a review of the literature on offshore wind power. Structural, economic, and environmental aspects are discussed keeping in mind the current status of offshore wind power development around the world. Offshore wind power is a relatively new technology being used by countries such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and China to provide larger and larger portions of their total energy needs. In 1991 Denmark opened its first commercial offshore wind farm in Vindeby producing a mere 4.95 MW of power. More ambitious projects followed and in 2001 the Middelgrunden, Copenhagen wind farm opened producing 40 MW of power. Then in 2000 the Horns Rev wind farm was put online producing 160 MW of power. The United Kingdom has many offshore wind power projects as well. The Blyth Offshore was opened in 2000 and produces 3.8 MW of power and several others in the United Kingdom produce anywhere from 10 to 90 MW of power. By 2007 end, Denmark had 402 MW and the UK had 395 MW, Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands had varying amounts. Countries such as China and Germany are also leaders in the development of offshore wind power. In the United States, commercial offshore wind projects had a late start. The first operational offshore wind farms opened in 2007. However, the United States does not lag behind in wind power. In 2008 the United States produced more megawatt of wind power than any other country, making them the leader of wind power production. Offshore wind, however, only constitutes a tiny portion of the total wind power production of the United States.
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