Falck and BlueFloat on Ionian mission for third Italian floating wind plan

Developer partners eye 675MW development off Calabria in latest proposal for deepwater deployment

A view of the Ionian from Calabria.
A view of the Ionian from Calabria.Foto: Pom via Flickr

Floating wind partners Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy further raised their ambitions in Italy with plans for a 675MW project off Calabria.

The two companies, which are already advancing gigawatt-scale projects in the Adriatic, said the 45-turbine development, called Minervia Energia, would be sited between 13km and 29km off Catanzaro in the Gulf of Squillace, an inlet of the Ionian Sea.

The project partners applied for a maritime concession to regional officials at the beginning of December and have started preliminary work ahead of an environmental impact assessment.

Plans include using the region’s main port to support construction and maintenance of the wind farm.

Italy has rapidly emerged as a significant target market for floating wind developers, with large tracts of its waters unsuitable for fixed-foundation development.

The nation’s ministry of ecological transition said at the end of November it had received 64 expressions of interest for potential offshore wind development, mostly for floating.

Among 55 companies and business associations expressing interest were Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, DEME Offshore, the EDPR-Engie joint venture Ocean Winds and RWE, as well as Italian oil major Eni.

For their part, BlueFloat and Falck – the latter an Italy-based group – are looking at floating wind opportunities more widely, including a bid in the ScotWind tender off Scotland with global offshore wind leader Orsted.
The Global Wind Energy Council expects 16.5GW of floating turbines to be in the water by 2030, a dramatic increase from the 6.5GW it was anticipating only a year ago, with most of that growth coming in the second half of the decade when the sector, which currently has just over 100MW in place, is tipped for dramatic lift-off.
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Published 14 December 2021, 16:58Updated 14 December 2021, 16:58
OffshoreItalyEuropeFalck Renewables BlueFloat Energy