Italian offshore engineering and construction giant Saipem has teamed up with Divento, a partnership between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and GreenIT, to apply its Star 1 floating wind technology on two projects offshore Italy.
Saipem was selected after a competitive technical-economic feasibility procedure. Its Star 1 tech is developed for the construction of semi-submersible floating wind foundations.
The two projects are the 7 Seas Med and Ichnusa Wind Power floaters offshore Sicily and Sardinia respectively.
The 7 Seas Med is located in the Strait of Sicily some 35 km from the coast, with a capacity of 252MW and a yearly production of about 800GWh. It is the first of its kind in Italy to receive the environmental compatibility decree from the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security.
Ichnusa Wind Power is a project that will be developed by the namesake company about 40 km from the southwest coast of Sardinia with a capacity of 504MW and a yearly production of about 1.6TWh of renewable energy.
Both initiatives are in the development phase and awaiting the completion of the definition of the regulatory framework for the first auctions for Italian innovative renewables technologies, among which floating offshore wind.
“Floating offshore wind can play an important role both for the Italian industry and for the production of safe and renewable energy. We, therefore, await clarifications on the CfD system for floating offshore wind, which is essential to allow this potential to materialize”, adds Kunal Patel, partner at CIP.
