This 5 megawatt wind turbine, the world's commercially largest available made by Repower Systems . . .

will before long be eclipsed by a 7.5 MW monster, to be made by Clipper Windpower. Who said wind turbines had reached their maximum physical size?

A 50% increase in theoretical peak power is a big deal and these new giants will almost certainly only be placed out at sea. I have heard that plans were drawn up for the contruction of a 10 MW model, a few years ago and we are only just now scaling up in size again after a good 5 years of stagnation. A more sceptical reading of this story though would suggest that Clipper Windpower is tapping into what many in the UK regard as one of the softest touches for nearly free money - a tax funded Regional Development Agency. The quango in this story is called One North East. I'm always suspicious of companies seeking money from government bodies, particularly in my home country, Britain. And isn't Clipper in cahoots with BP, an oil major hardly short of cash - why can't they fund this turbine's development?

Still, business is business and I don't doubt that Clipper thought about this new partnership very hard. All investors worth their salt intuitively understand that capital generally flows to where the return is highest. Yet we all to readily overlook that businesses will always seek capital where the cost is lowest; low regulation stockmarkets, junk bonds and I suspect, in this case, government-funded quangos.