More green hydrogen plans emerge in Italy with 3.6 GW of floating wind proposed offshore Barletta

Waters offshore Italian municipality of Barletta have attracted three developers with plans to build floating wind farms. One of the projects, whose concession applications are currently being processed, is planned to have a capacity of 2.2 GW and to incorporate green hydrogen production.

A company named Nereus, established by an investment management subsidiary of the UK-based Nexta Capital Partners, has submitted an application for a 40-year concession for a floating wind farm in the southern Adriatic Sea, in the stretch of sea off the coasts of Vieste and Barletta, near the Gulf of Manfredonia.

The wind farm is planned to have a total capacity of 2,205 MW, made up of 147 wind turbines of an output of 15 MW and installed in two phases.

According to Italian media, the floating wind farm will produce up to 5 TWh of clean electricity per year, with part of this planned to be fed into the grid and part to be used for green hydrogen production.

A similar project has been proposed to be built nearby, offshore Bari, by Hope Group (Gruppo Hope) which requested a 30-year concession to build a 1.2 GW floating wind farm whose electricity would be used for hydrogen production on land.

Among the three concession applications for floating offshore wind farms that are now being processed by the Port Authority of Barletta is also a 930 MW project proposed by the company Apeneste.

Apeneste is requesting a 30-year concession for an area in the southern Adriatic Sea offshore Gargano where the company plans to build a wind farm consisting of 61 floating wind turbines and a floating substation.

Waters off Barletta are also where the company Regolo Rinnovabili wants to establish a floating offshore wind farm called BNW that would have an installed capacity of 504 MW.

The BNW project would be built in the Adriatic Sea in the stretch of sea between the municipalities of Giovinazzo and Barletta.

Regolo Rinnovabili’s plans include installing 32 floating wind turbines and two floating substations. The company has also filed for a concession for a similar project off the coast of Brindisi, at Punta Penne. that project is named BRN.

Italian authorities have received numerous concession requests for offshore wind farms over the course of this and last year, and most of the proposed projects are planned to use floating technology.

Over the recent several months, there is an increasing number of proposals that also comprise green hydrogen production.

Italy so far has one operational offshore wind farm, the Beleolico project off Taranto, in the Mediterranean Sea, which was commissioned in April this year.