If there’s one thing that Ferdinand Magellan, the European explorer who first landed in the area now known as Rhode Island didn’t have to do battle with when sailing up the coast, it was navigating offshore wind turbines.

It was relative plain sailing. Something that – buoyed by his success – no doubt encouraged him to score some smart political points when he wrote that the natives were the most advanced of all the East Coast tribes.

In doing so, he set a path for the state to pursue what became a pretty progressive streak. The point?

He went out on a limb. Took a risk. And the risk paid off. If there’s one thing that Ferdinand Magellan, the European explorer who first landed in the area now known as Rhode Island didn’t have to do battle with when sailing up the coast, it was navigating offshore wind turbines.

It was relative plain sailing. Something that – buoyed by his success – no doubt encouraged him to score some smart political points when he wrote that the natives were the most advanced of all the East Coast tribes.

In doing so, he set a path for the state to pursue what became a pretty progressive streak. The point?

He went out on a limb. Took a risk. And the risk paid off.

Scroll forwards almost five hundred years and once again there’s change afoot – with entrepreneurial developers sailing in to challenge the status quo.

This time, the ambitions of the developers are far less significant than outright colonisation. Although, based on a quick flick through some of the local newspapers earlier this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

By way of a quick overview, many inhabitants are concerned about the impact that any prospective development may have on the region’s booming fishing and maritime market.

While others are expressing worries over the placement of substations and cabling that will provide a vital connection between generators and the grid.

All sensible anxieties of course – and an accurate reflection of the challenges that many of the offshore developers within European waters continue to face.

However, what’s interesting about this small pocket of the international offshore wind development market is that despite the continued industry progress, the fact remains that there’s still no steel in the water.

True, Cape Wind inches closer to financial close and Deepwater Wind continues to make good ground. However, even when you dial in the recent developments at Fishermen’s Atlantic City Windfarm, three projects do not a market make.

And that’s the wider line of thinking that really now has to shift.

True, thanks to an extremely competitive domestic liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, North American offshore wind may take some time to command anywhere near the status of its European counterpart.

However, the fact remains that despite a rapidly expanding pipeline and transmission network, Boston and its surrounding suburbs still remains largely dependent on over 60 supersized sea shipments of imported LNG – that arrive in Boston harbour under tight security, over 60 times a year.

The imports are vital because the current pipeline and energy transmission infrastructure that shifts the stuff produced within the US from its source to cities such as Boston, simply isn’t there. And it remains cheaper and more profitable to source the stuff from overseas.

And profits of course are the point. At the conference this week, AWEA reiterated time and again the numerous potential benefits of operating turbines offshore. All of which of course, were entirely valid.

Nevertheless, as securing the final few percentage points of finance becomes an increasing project priority for some of the flagship schemes, the dominance of the overseas LNG market in Boston is a timely reminder that providing peak power must also produce persuasive profits.

Scroll forwards almost five hundred years and once again there’s change afoot – with entrepreneurial developers sailing in to challenge the status quo.

This time, the ambitions of the developers are far less significant than outright colonisation. Although, based on a quick flick through some of the local newspapers earlier this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

By way of a quick overview, many inhabitants are concerned about the impact that any prospective development may have on the region’s booming fishing and maritime market.

While others are expressing worries over the placement of substations and cabling that will provide a vital connection between generators and the grid.

All sensible anxieties of course – and an accurate reflection of the challenges that many of the offshore developers within European waters continue to face.

However, what’s interesting about this small pocket of the international offshore wind development market is that despite the continued industry progress, the fact remains that there’s still no steel in the water.

True, Cape Wind inches closer to financial close and Deepwater Wind continues to make good ground. However, even when you dial in the recent developments at Fishermen’s Atlantic City Windfarm, three projects do not a market make.

And that’s the wider line of thinking that really now has to shift.

True, thanks to an extremely competitive domestic liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, North American offshore wind may take some time to command anywhere near the status of its European counterpart.

However, the fact remains that despite a rapidly expanding pipeline and transmission network, Boston and its surrounding suburbs still remains largely dependent on over 60 supersized sea shipments of imported LNG – that arrive in Boston harbour under tight security, over 60 times a year.

The imports are vital because the current pipeline and energy transmission infrastructure that shifts the stuff produced within the US from its source to cities such as Boston, simply isn’t there. And it remains cheaper and more profitable to source the stuff from overseas.

And profits of course are the point. At the conference this week, AWEA reiterated time and again the numerous potential benefits of operating turbines offshore. All of which of course, were entirely valid.

Nevertheless, as securing the final few percentage points of finance becomes an increasing project priority for some of the flagship schemes, the dominance of the overseas LNG market in Boston is a timely reminder that providing peak power must also produce persuasive profits.