Wind power, environmental OK for Apulia's Barium Bay park

The Barium Bay wind farm has obtained a positive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) decree from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security. The project, located along the stretch of sea between Bari and the north of Barletta, was developed by Galileo, a pan-European platform for the development of renewable energy, and Gruppo Hope, a company active in the design of renewable energy plants, with four locations in Italy, three of which are in Puglia.

Barium Bay is the largest offshore wind farm to have reached this milestone in Italy and the Mediterranean Basin. The granting of the Via follows positive opinions from the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Culture. This allows the project to participate in the auction procedure under the Fer 2 decree, which allocates 3,800 megawatts to offshore wind power.

More than 45 kilometres away from the coast, Barium Bay has been designed with two fixed-foundation, offshore electricity stations. With a planned capacity of 1,110 megawatts, due to its windy location, it will be able to generate more than 3 billion kilowatt hours per year, enough to cover the energy needs of more than one million Italian households.

"We are enthusiastic," says Michele Scoppio, CEO of the Hope group, "about the result obtained because Hope was created with the aim of being an active part of the energy transition process in Italy. We have worked with passion to propose a project capable of generating sustainable energy, without burdening the environment and the landscape. Thanks to the wind blowing in the southern Adriatic Sea, the energy produced will be valuable for businesses and citizens, and will contribute to creating an increasingly healthy territory by increasing employment in Puglia".

For his part, Francesco Dolzani, president of Barium Bay and development director for Galileo in Italy, emphasises that 'this milestone is the result of the work of numerous national and international organisations and professionals. Now our attention is focused on the next steps to achieve the objectives of building and commissioning the plant, which will be able to generate thousands of specialised jobs by facilitating the investment of several billion euros in the country'.