Wild is the wind: the resource that could power the world

Wind isn't just mysterious, destructive and exhilarating - capturing just 2% of it would solve the planet's energy needs at a stroke. And as the windiest country in Europe, Britain is at the forefront of this green revolutionThe wind rips along the Humber estuary in Hull. It's the kind that presses your coat to your back and pushes you on to your toes. "A bit too windy," shouts Andy Sykes, before his words are swept away. He is the head of operational excellence at the Siemens factory, which supplies blades - the bits that turn - to windfarms in the North Sea. At 75 metres long, they are hard to manoeuvre when it's gusting.Inside the vast factory hall, the blades lie in various states of undress. Several hundred layers of fibreglass and balsa wood are being tucked into giant moulds by hand. There are "naked" blades that require paint and whose bodies have the patina of polished tortoiseshell. Look through the hollow blades from the broadest part, and a pale green path, the tinge of fibreglass, snakes down the long tunnel, tapering to a small burst of daylight at its tip. Continue reading...