Italy-based company Mazar Wind Srl has requested a maritime concession for a floating offshore wind farm off the Sicilian coast. The project is planned to comprise 74 wind turbines and four offshore substations.
The floating wind farm is proposed to be built in the stretch of sea off Mazara del Vallo, at a minimum distance from the Sicilian coast of 50 kilometres, and to connect to the national grid at an onshore substation in the municipality of Mazara del Vallo.
Each of the 74 turbines is planned to have a nominal output of 15 MW, making up the total capacity of the project of 1.1 GW.
The electricity produced by the floating wind farm would first be fed into four 66 kV/150 kV offshore substations which will raise the voltage level to 150 kV/220 kV before power is further transferred to the onshore connection point via a 150 kV submarine cable.
Mazar Wind Srl’s application – submitted to the Directorate General for the Supervision of the Port System Authorities, Maritime Transport and Internal Waterways of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in November 2022 – is currently undergoing public consultation at the Coast Guard of Mazara del Vallo.
The application is requesting for a 40-year concession for the construction and operation of the 1.1 GW floating wind farm.
This project is among tens of floating wind proposals requesting concessions offshore Italy, several of them already submitted for waters off Sicily, including those by AvenHexicon who just secured permits from the Italian transmission system operator (TSO) Terna SpA to connect six of its seven floating wind farms proposed in Italy to the national grid.