In Hope Group’s vision, offshore wind technology will be one of the key driving forces in the attainment of our country’s ambitious goal of achieving net zero emissions (a balance between the amount of greenhouse gases produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere) by 2050. In fact we believe that, for Italy, floating offshore wind is the best way to rapidly increase the potential of renewable sources while at the same time respecting the needs of the land and its inhabitants. Italy has deep sea-beds richly populated with Posidonia, a plant endemic to the Mediterranean and essential for the marine habitat. Thanks to offshore technology, new wind installations are not only compatible with the underwater environment but can also contribute to restoring it, thus fostering biodiversity and an abundance of fish, to the benefit of local fishing communities. In the planning stage, great attention is paid to environmental sustainability, to the visual impact on the landscape and to relations with the local communities. We want the wind farms to be not only accepted but also well liked, and so our aim is to create a system that will bring about sustainable re-industrialisation of the territory and lead to the emergence of new professional skills as well as the development of centres of expertise recognised at a European level or, in other words, to the redrawing of the map of geopolitical equilibria in matters of energy.

The fact that the installations are positioned at a considerable distance from the coast, an essential requirement both for the legislature and for our team of planners, means that they are barely visible from land and that we can get better wind performance, with estimated production above the equivalent of 3,000 hours per year.

Analysis and design studies have revealed sea depths of less than 200 metres, which makes it possible to use well-established technology to create the semi-submerged foundations. As regards the electrical substations, we prefer non-floating solutions in order to be able to use 400 kV static subsea cables. In regions where conditions are particularly favourable, such as Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia, the estimated potential in 2030 for offshore wind is 5GW.