Using wind energy where the wind blows strongest makes perfect sense as long as the energy can be readily transported to where it is needed.
The first offshore plants are already being erected, and many more are planned. But the farther they are away from the coast, the more urgent becomes the problem of transferring the current with as low a loss as possible. Over long distances, this is possible only with direct current.
To exactly determine the unavoidable losses also in this case, and to set up a metrological infrastructure for a future network of direct current transfer paths, a European cooperation project has been launched in which a great number of metrology institutes is involved. The starting signal for this project came from Braunschweig, from a close cooperation between the Technical University (TU) and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) which are now both intensively involved in the new project.
For full article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101105085431.htm
Source: Source: Science Daily / University of Toronto