One is the use of wind turbines up to three times larger than the 500 kilowatt models in use at Tuno Knob. Such 1.5 megawatt turbines have already been installed successfully in substantial numbers in several European countries. By building wind farms of 100 machines or more, economies of scale are achieved and much better use made of expensive cabling needed to transfer the electricity back to shore. The other factor is an important breakthrough in the method of constructing the all-important foundations. New engineering studies monitored by the Danish Energy Agency suggest that foundation costs could be cut by over a third if steel is used rather than concrete.
Steel has the advantage of being lighter and therefore easier to transport and install.
Economic studies by the utilities and engineering companies also show that it will be possible to install turbines at sea depths of up to 15 metres without any significant cost increase. This opens up a much wider area of the sea to development. Since the bigger turbines produce more power, the cost of electricity from the new large scale parks is expected to compare favourably with a coal-fired power station. Local environmental effects Rather than have scattered small scale developments close to the coast, where they might clash with leisure interests, the Danish action plan recommends a small number of very large wind parks further out to sea. The new wind farms will be built in general at a distance of between seven and ten kilometres from the coastline.