EUR741m floating offshore wind farm planned in Italy

Copenhagen Offshore Partners, with the financial backing of the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners fund, is planning to develop a 250 MW floating offshore wind farm of the shore of Sicily. The farm will be the first floating wind farm in the Mediterranean and will be located in the strait of Sicily off the south-western coast of the island near Marsala in Trapani province.

The EUR741 million(US$828 million) wind project named 7Seas Med is set to use 25 floating turbines of 10 MW each and using the TetraSpar-style floating foundations.

The project site has a water depth of up to 300 meters, making it unsuitable for fixed-bottom foundations. The turbines will be installed at a distance of over 35 kilometers from Marsala and will not be visible from the Sicilian coast.

7Seas Med floating wind farm project proposal was submitted to the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Infrastructure before the outbreak of the pandemic. It is currently under review by the Italian authorities with construction planned to start in 2023.