Page 2 - Avolio_Ferrara_2000

Is there a future for Offshore Wind Energy Plants in Sicily?

Sesto Avolio, Carmelo Ferrara
Eolica s.r.l. - Via Sergio Forti, 23 - 00144 Roma
Phone + 39 06 5224 6112 - Fax + 39 06 5224 8883
e-mail: eolica@ eolica.net - web: www.eolica.net

ABSTRACT

The situation of wind deployment in Sicily today is ‡complex· : a lot of initiatives have been announced
from time to time, but as of today only small attempts have seen the light. This can be due to the lack
of areas really competitive from the wind resource standpoint.
However, along the West Coast of Sicily, ‡standard· orographic situations can be found, where the wind
resource decreases as far as we move inland out of the coast. In these cases it is possible to extrapolate
offshore the anemometric data acquired onshore, applying recognised models and utilising the several
met stations useful for the purpose.
A preliminary study concerning the feasibility of an Offshore Wind Energy plant in the coastal area of
Trapani has been performed.

MOTTO

If the past was so bright and the present is so grey, there is any reason why there should be no rainbow
in the future ?

KEYWORDS

Off-shore; Wind Energy; Sicily; Aeolus; Trapani; Salt ponds; Modelling; Eolica

winds except the one that was going to take him
THE PAST
home. In sight of Ithaca, Odysseus fell asleep and
Odysseus's sailors, thinking the bag contained gold,
The first wind settlement in the history was in
Sicily: AEOLUS, Keeper of the Winds in Greek opened it and were at once blown back to Aeolia.
mythology, "lived on the floating island Aeolia There Aeolus was very angry and refused to help
with his six sons and six daughters. The god Zeus them again."
had given him the power to still and arouse the
winds. Some comments can arise from this short
excerpt:

- Aeolia was a floating island, so the first
wind settlement was off-shore;
- If there will never be a "Wind Authority" or
a "Wind Dispatcher" (or any other modern
name that correspond to "Keeper of the
Winds"), then it has to be located here;
- In the "Wind Business" you can never fell

asleep.
Homer narrates that when the Greek hero Odysseus
visited Aeolus, he was welcomed as an honoured SICILY
guest. As a parting gift, Aeolus gave him a "The island of Sicily is a place of contrasts: from the
favouring wind and a leather bag filled with all the
crumbling grandeur of its capital, Palermo, to the