Around the world with Team Norway: Italy joining the wave of offshore energy

“With its deep waters, Italy’s coastline is similar to Norway’s," says acting director at Innovation Norway Italy, Mauro Migliavacca.

The key areas for offshore wind in Italy are Sicily, Sardinia and the Puglia region, the latter of which is known as the “Heel of Italy”.

“In all these regions, the sea depth is significant – even reaching a thousand metres in some parts of the central Mediterranean – so we're primarily talking about floating technologies in Italy,” he says.

Although the focus on offshore wind in Italy is relatively new, the country is now poised to join the push for a huge expansion of renewable energy production in Europe.

The process of developing offshore wind in Italy has been slow. It began about four years ago at the government level, but progress has been hampered by a lack of specific legislation for offshore wind auctions and subsidy schemes. Major developers believed it was too early to invest, given that the regulatory framework was unclear. Now, however, thanks to new legislation that came in June, FER2, it’s a different story.

“That all changed in June 2024 when the government released a decree that includes subsidies for several renewable sectors, including offshore wind. The new legislation provides for the subsidy of 3.8 GW of offshore wind, which will almost entirely be floating projects due to our deep waters,” says Migliavacca.

According to him, Italy is handling more than 100 GW of permit requests for locations throughout the south.

“There are a lot of developers asking for a lot of gigawatts of capacity. So, the interest is there. The response has been really strong. But out of this 100 GW, developers will only ultimately be granted permission to build and produce 3.8 GW.”

Norway’s Aker Solutions recently won a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract with Italian developer Renexia for the underwater substations for the Med Wind floating offshore wind project. The very first floating wind farm in the Mediterranean Sea, Med Wind will feature 190 floating turbines and have a capacity of 2.8 GW.

Under the agreement, Aker Solutions, in collaboration with ABB Norway, will design eight subsea modules, two for each section of the Med Wind project, to be laid on the seabed in the Strait of Sicily at a depth of 520 to 660 metres. The modules will house the cables for the wind farm’s floating turbines.

The project will not only supply clean energy to 3.4 million homes, but it will also support job creation in Sicily, marking a significant milestone in Italy’s renewable energy transition.

This contract will likely be the first of many for Norwegian companies. Regardless of which consortia receive final authorisation for their floating offshore wind projects, there will be a huge demand for solutions and services that Norway can deliver.

Norway has, for example, unparalleled expertise in floating and subsea technologies.

“Building floaters is not just about building the floaters: you have to place them in the sea, anchor them, connect them, monitor them. It’s a very complicated process and the Norwegians are currently the global leaders in this part of the supply chain,” he points out.

Migliavacca would also like to see heavyweight Norwegian developers play a major role in Italy. As the regulatory landscape solidifies, this could be a crucial moment for Norwegian companies to assist and benefit from Italy’s emerging renewable energy market.

“Secondly, there’s potential for big developers like Equinor and Aker Solutions to strengthen their cooperation with local players to participate in upcoming auctions. Since there’s already a strong connection between the Italian and Norwegian industries at a high level, it could be relatively easy to build on that. But they need to act fast because the auction timeline is tight, with the first auction likely in December 2024, and the window for participation closing by 2028,” says Migliavacca.

With new legislation now in place, the wind is blowing in Italy’s sails.

“The next few years will be very important and exciting for Italy. We hope big partners come on board and join our important mission to expand offshore wind in Italy,” concludes Migliavacca.