<P> These floating turbines are a very different construction technology--closer to floating oil rigs rather--than traditional fixed - bottom, shallow - water monopile foundations that are used in the other large offshore wind farms to date . </P> <P> By late 2011, Japan announced plans to build a multiple - unit floating wind farm, with six 2 - megawatt turbines, off the Fukushima coast of northeast Japan where the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster has created a scarcity of electric power . After the evaluation phase is complete in 2016, "Japan plans to build as many as 80 floating wind turbines off Fukushima by 2020" at a cost of some 10 - 20 billion Yen . </P> <P> Airborne wind energy systems use airfoils or turbines supported in the air by buoyancy or by aerodynamic lift . The purpose is to eliminate the expense of tower construction, and allow extraction of wind energy from steadier, faster, winds higher in the atmosphere . As yet no grid - scale plants have been constructed . Many design concepts have been demonstrated . </P>

The first person to develop a picture of the large-scale wind and current systems of the earth was