Dutch trains will run 100 percent on wind energy in 3 years time from now:

http://interestingengine...in-the-next-three-years/

Of course,there will be no direct powerlink between windmills and electric trains.
What they are trying to say is that the equivalent of the electric power required will be allocated to wind power,irrespective of the actual source.
Various shipping companies are very busy erecting huge windmill parks on the North Sea,also the number of large modern windmills on land is increasing all the time.
The generated power can be used for any given purpose.

In general,the trend in Holland is towards electric power consumption.
A large number of streets,including mine,have electric power connections for cars.
Electric cooking becomes the standard.
The number of trains overhere running on Diesel is very limited.

To tell you a little secret: countries like France and Sweden are largely depending on nuclear generated electric power.
The happy bunch are Switzerland and Norway,using waterfall generated power for almost 100 percent.

I agree in principle to getting energy from natural sources such as wind and water, but I'm sick of the sight of all these ugly wind turbines cluttering up the countryside, and now also huge areas of the sea.

From my humble apartment I can see hundreds of these lining the hills above Tarifa in Spain across the bay, and recently I've noticed them going up on the hills across the straits in Morocco. Is nowhere sacred?

I would be very happy to see more research into power from tides and ocean currents, with generators hidden from view beneath the waves!

It'll be interesting to see how it affects the yachting community, as this is an area very important for those sailing along the south coast. Remember that small yachts can't always stick to demarcated shipping lanes (and they actually avoid them for safety reasons!)

I wonder how many wrecks there will be before the hazard to shipping is taken into account by the money hungry power companies.