Concession sought for 560 MW offshore wind farm in Adriatic Sea

As Italy’s first offshore wind farm, located in the Mediterranean Sea, enters construction and the state and local authorities are processing further projects off the country’s Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea coasts, a new application has been filed for the development of a 560 MW offshore wind farm.

Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility and the Port Authority of the Port of Gallipoli published a new offshore wind project concession application on 8 September to enable public and stakeholder input, with the consultation period running from 13 September to 2 October.

The application has been submitted by a Milan-based company Iron Solar, which is is seeking a 30-year maritime concession to build and operate a 560 MW offshore wind project in the southern part of the Adriatic Sea, off the Province of Lecce.

The project would comprise 40 wind turbines of a nominal capacity of 14 MW each, which would be “installed on tubular steel towers and related floating foundations divided into 8 subfields” around 15.5 kilometres and 22 kilometres offshore the municipalities of Vernole, Lecce, Trepuzzi, Squinzano, Torchiarolo, San Pietro Vernotico, and Brindisi. The waters in this maritime area are governed by the Port Authority of Gallipoli and the Port Authority of Brindisi.

Iron Solar first filed the concession application documents to the state authorities in May, which then forwarded the application to the relevant port authorities at the beginning of August.

The country’s first offshore wind farm, the 30 MW Beleolico project, is currently being built in the waters near the Port of Taranto, close to the Province of Lecce.

There are several other projects planned to be built in the country, including the 7 Seas Med’s 250 MW floating wind project later joined by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and a 450 MW fixed-bottom offshore wind project being developed by AGNES and QINT’X and joined by Saipem.