What is offshore wind?

Offshore wind is the wind resource available off the US coastline in the open ocean and the Great Lakes.  Offshore wind resources are abundant, strong and blow more consistently than most land-based wind. US Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that the technical resource potential accessible in state and federal waters along the coasts of the United States and the Great Lakes could be a high as 4,000 gigawatts (http://energy.gov/eere/wind/wind-resource-assessment-and-characterization). While not all of this resource potential will be realistically developed, the magnitude (approximately four times the combined generating capacity of all existing U.S. electric power plants) represents a substantial opportunity to generate electricity near coastal high-density population centers. (http://energy.gov/eere/wind/offshore-wind-research-and-development)