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Maybe wind turbines should be built on shore and directly pump water into a nearby reservoir atop a hill or mountain, and electricity would be generated on demand via hydro releasing the water back to the ocean.
This reduces conversion losses since the kinetic energy of the wind would directly move water uphill, and only 1 conversion would need to take place when you actually need electricity. You'd still have frictional losses by gearing and moving the water in a tube, but perhaps it wouldn't be too great. Any idea what the losses might be?
Seems cheaper than building a crane system which would probably need more maintenance, though I'm not sure about this either.
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