The energy company Statoil has begun operation of the first full-size Hywind floating wind turbine at a location 10 kilometers off the Norwegian coast. What is remarkable about this turbine is that is is floating in the water, rather than being rigidly attached to the ocean floor.
Floating in deep water - Well, out of sight, out of mind. Just takes longer power cables (a nontrivial problem) to get the power to shore. But when I compare the wind turbine pictured to the size of the tug boats, the turbine doesn't look very "full sized" to me.
Let's grant the three ships as fairly large ocean-going tugs, maybe a hundred feet or a little more in length. I'd eyeball the turbine as possibly a 200 ft tower with 100 ft blades. It is hard to judge. The numbers are probably out there somewhere.
The turbines planned for our mountain are 400 ft at their highest point.
My wife and neighbors are up in arms. Personally, while I think wind turbines are a cruddy alternative and only marginally useful to the power grid, I think NIMBYs are worse. The studies I've seen suggest most people think modern wind turbines are kinda pretty, and they don't hurt property values.
They're within an order of magnitude of full-scale, anyway. I wonder what those things will do in a Cat 5 hurricane?