New Project Proposed in Taranto Waters, Home of Italy’s First Offshore Wind Farm

August 1, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

The Italian authorities are currently processing a concession application for a wind energy project in the waters off Taranto, where the country’s first offshore wind farm was built. While the wind turbines now spinning near the Port of Taranto stand on fixed-bottom foundations, the new application is for a project that would be built farther offshore and would use floating wind technology.

The project is being proposed by a company called Ionio Prime at a site in the Ionian Sea, in the Gulf of Taranto, between the regions of Basilicata and Puglia, in the waters under the jurisdiction of the Port Authorities of Taranto and Gallipoli.

28 floating wind turbines, each with a nominal output of 15 MW, are proposed to be installed. According to the documentation now published for public consultation, one of the wind turbine generator technologies being considered is Vestas’s V236-15.0 MW model.

The 420 MW floating wind farm would also comprise one offshore substation, from which an export cable would run to a landfall location on the coast in the Municipality of Rotondella, in Taranto’s Maritime Compartment.

The wind farm would connect to the grid in the Municipality of Aliano, where the Terna Aliano NTG onshore substation would be expanded to allow for the project to link there to the national grid.

Parco Eolico Ionio public consultation document; Source: Taranto Port Authority / Taranto Coast Guard

The area of the Gulf of Taranto near the Taranto port is already home to Italy’s first offshore wind farm and the first to be built in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Taranto offshore wind farm, also known as Beleolico, was developed and built by the Italian company Renexia, which was the first developer to install Chinese wind turbines on an offshore wind project in Europe.

The 30 MW wind farm, which was fully commissioned last year, features ten MySE3.0-135 wind turbines delivered by MingYang Smart Energy.