'Offshore wind energy is at heart a European matter and whether you have a coastline is not important.

We are talking about deploying one of the major indigenous energy resources of Europe.'

The EWEA stated that in the longer term a sea area of 150,000km 2with a water depth of less than 35m could be available, providing enough power to satisfy all of Europe's electricity demand.

Millais added, 'The European wind sector remains the engine of growth for global wind markets and will provide the bulk of the future multi-billion Euro market over the coming decade.'

By the end of last year a total of 600MW of offshore wind farms had been constructed around Europe in the coastal waters of Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK. Over the past two years the average size of offshore projects has increased to more than 50MW, with the largest so far, the 166MW Nysted wind farm off the southern coast of Denmark capable of generating enough electricity for 145,000 average European homes.

For the successful implementation of offshore wind energy, the EWEA says three barriers must be overcome. The first is the lack of physical grids at sea to connect large scale offshore wind energy.

Second is a lack of international cooperation over grid planning and the conducting of EIAs. Third is one of the principal barriers to the full scale exploitation of offshore wind electricity and also to the creation of a well functioning EU Internal Electricity Market.

It lies in the structure of power companies and in the way electricity markets are operated in Europe at present.

'The lack of transparency in European electricity markets is a barrier to the development of offshore wind energy as well as to creating effective competition in the internal electricity market, ' said Millais.

At the London exhibition, visitors to the stand of Denmark's A2SEA A/S were offered a coach ride from Wembley to Tower Bridge to go on board the company's wind farm installation vessel. More than 600 delegates took the opportunity to tour M/VOcean Ady , which was moored for the duration of the exhibition alongside HMS Belfast .The 91.76m LOA vessel is a self sustaining operation which transports wind farm towers and rotors to site and installs them on offshore foundations, with a 400 mt capacity Demag CC-2500 main crane doing the plants and two 40t container handling cranes acting as tailing cranes when tilting up tower sections and acting as pre-assembly cranes for putting the rotors together. Four tension legs stabilise the vessel during crane operations.

M/V Ocean Ady is keeping a busy schedule in the UK.

The vessel has already installed wind turbines at Scroby Sands off Great Yarmouth this year and is booked for similar work at Kentish Flats in the Thames Estuary and at Barrow in Cumbria.

MJ Information No: 20121