Unless you add some wind, water and electric power plants don’t mix well naturally.

What is being described as an engineering miracle at the very least is developers are putting jumbo-jet sized wind turbines into stormy seas in the renewable energy industry since water tends to corrode and short out circuits.

These multi-billion-dollar mega projects make increasing economic sense, even compared to new coal and nuclear power and this might be even more miraculous to skeptics like those populating Donald Trump’s administration.

“If you have a sufficiently large site with the right wind speeds, then I do believe you can build offshore wind at least at the same price as new build coal in many places around the world including the U.S.,” said Henrik Poulsen, chief executive officer of Dong Energy A/S, the Danish utility that has pioneered the technology and has become the world’s biggest installer of windmills at sea.

With a fall of 22 percent last year alone, there has been a reduction of 46 percent in the last five years in the price of building an offshore wind farm across Europe. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, erecting turbines in the seabed now costs an average $126 for each megawatt-hour of capacity. And the London-based researcher estimates that’s closing in on the $88 price tag on new coal plants and below the $155 a megawatt-hour price for new nuclear developments in Europe.

The investment needed to build offshore wind capacity is plummeting as nuclear power costs spiral, prompting delays at Electricite France SA’s plant in Flamanville, and a $6,3 billion writedown at reactor maker Toshiba Corp.

Vattenfall AB last year agreed to supply power from turbines in the North Sea at 60 euros ($64) a megawatt-hour in 2020 in Denmark where the government shoulders much of the development risk. Gunnar Groebler, the utility’s head of wind says that Dutch and German auctions due this year provide “ample opportunity” to beat that record low price.

For a place that historically enjoys lower power prices than Europe, the technology as too costly in the US and even there the industry is taking hold.

After commissioning one plant in Rhode Island after a bidding war following a federal auction in December for rights to develop wind farms off the coast of Long Island, work in Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina is also being considered.

The U.S. government’s official goal for now is to install 86 gigawatts of turbines at sea by 2050, although Trump said offshore wind was “monstrous” when it came into conflict with his golf course in Scotland. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, that’s six times the 14 gigawatts of capacity now in place worldwide.

The sea is made a natural place to anchor turbines due to the strength of the wind off the coast. According to  The Crown Estate which leases out areas of U.K. seabed belonging to the Queen to wind farms, in European waters, breezes average 22 miles per hour about 360 feet (110 meters) off the surface, a good baseline for the scale of many installations. That’s almost triple the average wind speed onshore.

Fixing the machines to the seabed requires deep concrete footings cast in often turbulent seas while more steady gusts mean each turbine will yield more electricity.

Much of the year, turbines are battered by punishing storms and strong tides in the North Sea, the crucible of the modern offshore wind industry. Deep footings, specialized ships and cranes capable of lifting equipment that can weigh tons is required for securing structures as tall as the Washington Monument in the ocean.

As petroleum production subsides in the North Sea, attention is being accorded to offshore wind by oil majors that have spent decades building skills to work in those conditions. Among companies that won contracts to build offshore wind projects last year are Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Statoil ASA.

(Adapted from CNBC)

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