Wind power has seen significant growth in recent years and now accounts for about 8 percent of the world's energy production. By the end of the decade, it will be the second-largest source of renewable energy after solar, surpassing hydropower, according to the International Energy Agency.

Wind turbines are more efficient than solar panels — they use, on average, about 50 percent of the energy that passes through them, compared with about 20 percent for solar panels — but they are more dependent on location. Offshore turbines take advantage of stronger winds and are more efficient than land-based ones, but they are also more expensive to build and maintain, writes CNN.

In the UK, where wind power was set to become the largest source of energy for the first time in 2024, a new business called Drift is aiming to extract even more power from offshore wind by going after it — with a racing yacht. “We generate renewable energy in the ocean using sailboats and ship it to ports around the world,” says Drift founder and CEO Ben Medland. Drift has built two prototypes, each just over 5 feet long, and will debut them in 2022 at the Sail GP in the UK’s Plymouth Harbour. These high-performance catamarans are equipped with hydrofoils that lift them above the water, as well as an underwater turbine that looks like a helicopter but works in reverse, capturing energy as the boat moves through the water. This renewable energy is fed into a device called an electrolyzer, which converts seawater into hydrogen gas and stores it on board, ready to be discharged. It can then be used as a clean fuel to power industrial processes or for cars, planes and ships.

"This is a first-class mobile renewable energy," Medland continues. "It doesn't need grid infrastructure. It doesn't need underwater wires. It doesn't need foundations or moorings or anything like that. These are, 'free' wind turbines."