An innovative project to put offshore wind turbines on floating platforms could receive up to £25million of funding. The Energy Technologies Institute announced plans to back a two year trial of the new system.Offshore wind has been criticised for high costs at the expense of the public purse. The ETI, a partnership betwee industry and the UK Government, says that this new twist on offshore wind could cut costs in the long run.Dr David Clarke, ETI Chief Executive said: “Although large, floating turbines will have high capital costs, they can access near-to-shore, high wind speed sites off the west coast of the UK which overall brings down the cost of electricity generation for the long term.”He added that the country has a chance to take a leading role in developing the new technology.