The queen of England already owns countless acres of land in the United Kingdom, and quite a few buildings, too. Now she owns the world's largest wind turbine. Under construction in northern England by Clipper Windpower of California, the 10-megawatt behemoth will tower 574 feet - that's 258 feet taller than Big Ben. It's a prototype for Clipper's Britannia Project, a new class of massive turbines that will operate from deep-sea floating platforms.The Crown Estate, which manages Queen Elizabeth ll's property holdings, bought the mega tur- bine earlier this year. Once in operation off England's coast, it will supply electricity to 3,700 homes and, over its lifetime, will dis- place 2 million barrels of oil and 724,000 tons of carbon dioxide. At 10 megawatts, the turbine will produce five times more electricity than average windmills. Britain has set a goal of producing 33 gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind turbines by 2020. Getting the crown estate involved was essential, since the royal holdings include the seabed around Britain. As the queen herself might say, "We are blown away." -THOMAS K. GROSE

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