P.O.W.E.R.E.D Project has ended the installation of the most important italian network of anemometers for the development of the ‘Wind Energy

With the installation of an anemometric station in Vallevecchia Caorle, in an area of the Veneto Regional bureau of Agriculture, thanks to Project P.O.W.E.R.E.D the most important Italian network for the development of the ‘Wind Energy’ has been finally realized. The anemometric station is part of a network of 8 meteorological towers, each one equipped with 5 anemometers and 4 wind direction sensors, placed on 5 different levels of measuring: 45, 40, 30, 20 and 10 meters.
The meteorological network realized by P.O.W.E.R.E.D. is the instrumental part of a much broader objective, aimed to assess the wind potential of the Adriatic Sea to get the chance of planning the energy production of future wind farms. And, finally, to identify the “good practices” that the government and the authorities should use to make an appropriate energy planning concerning the offshore wind energy.

The obtained data from the POWERED stations will be assimilated by the weather prediction models to assess the offshore wind resource and to determine the expected energy production of future wind farms in the Adriatic sea. This is a unique service that allows the investors to meet the demand for “Predictable production”, which is requested by the national supplier of electricity.

«For the first time – says the head of the Scientific Committee, Prof. Engineer Renato Ricci, teacher at the University Politecnica of Marche, that is one of the project partners – we can indicate which are the suitable areas where we can exploit the wind resource. P.O.W.E.R.E.D has been able to identify the suitable sites from a scientific point of view: on the short-term time scale – the sites where we can use the current technology – and the one on the long-term time scale – the sites where, although they are suitable, we cannot use the current technology. It’s required a serious scientific documentation to build offshore wind farms. The work of scientific analysis developed by P.O.W.E.R.E.D allows a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that is a starting point for planning the development of offshore wind farms in the Adriatic Sea; is the only way we will be able to attract investors on this technology. I want to stress that all this informations are public, as it should be and as it is in other countries. If designers can have access to reliable public data, they can make their work at best. P.O.W.E.R.E.D is, in fact, an important means for all Ministries and Public institutions involved in the authorization process of the offshore wind farms: they will have all the instruments to carry on a thorough evaluation of the potential and the problems connected with the industrial investment that has to be evaluated».

For the development of italian offshore wind P.O.W.E.R.E.D is an essential instrument: it provides safe and certified data on wind power so to allow the planning of targeted investments; all those interested in investing in the offshore sector – entrepreneurs, banks, but also those who have to provide authorizations – will have a reliable means, also accepted by banks and by international investment funds. This demand was raised directly by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, which is one of the most important partners of the project.

«The science team of P.O.W.E.R.E.D, through analysis of matrices, has brought to an end an enormous task, thanks to the collaboration of all the project partners. Some example to understand the depth of the study: the georeferencing of impact matrices has been carried out for all components and sources, areal, linear and punctual. The team analyzed the impacts associated with the construction phase, of using and of decommissioning of an offshore wind farm by identifying all issues related to the different phases (impact of underwater acoustic, interference with fishing, interference with transport, impacts on flora and underwater wildlife and effect on birdlife)».

The task of the Project POWERED also includes the definition of common guidelines for the territories which stretch along the Adriatic, in order to simplify bureaucratic and administrative procedures that precede the phase of construction of the plants, but also to regulate the building stage. P.OW.E.R.E.D has achieved one of the most important results for Italy on the path of using wind energy in a systematic and efficient way. «The project – says Renato Ricci – aims to define the ‘best practices’, which are the actions to be taken to program effectively the making of an offshore wind farm. Which has to be programmed and cannot be managed as a wind farm on mainland, because there are issues related to lines of vessel traffic, environmental and social issues etc. And in this case it doesn’t work to leave room to individual initiative. In this way POWERED has dealt with all the issues and brought out all the possibilities connected to building an offshore wind farm».

POWERED Project is the most important among those financed by the IPA Adriatic Cross-Border Programme; it got an European funding of 4 million and 400 thousand euro. Italian partners are the Ministry of Environment, Regions Abruzzo (who is also the Project Leader), Molise, Puglia and Marche, the regional bureau Veneto Agriculture, the Province of Ravenna, the Polytechnic University of Marche, Cetma Group, Micoperi Marine Contractors. Montenegro and Albania participates with their respective Ministries of Economy.

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