Wind energy harvesting : focusing on exploitation of the Mediterranean Area

Abstract

As widely known, wind represents the second largest, i.e. second most important, source of energy power in Europe. Moving forward, its importance will even increase, as it is made evident by the actions of some most influential political/economical leaders worldwide. Looking to last years’ development, one can surely affirm that Europe focuses on wind energy generation: in 2016 wind energy alone contributed to over 50% of the new installed electric power, with 12,5 GW of new wind turbines (less than 11 GW on-shore, more than 1,5 GW off-shore). According to the report of Wind Europe, in 2016 wind energy has attracted 27 Billion Euro investments of which about 18 Billion offshore. With a total installed of 154 GW, wind energy becomes the second largest source of electrical power generation in Europe, after natural gas and before coal. Now with the increase in land price, the environmental issues related to onshore wind farms, the great offshore-wind resources is evidently clear that offshore technology has the greatest potential. This is also evidenced by the largest share of investments in offshore wind technology in 2016 (over 18 Billion Euro), with a jump of growth of 39% with respect to the previous year. It is expected this growth to continue in the coming years as, according to accredited estimates, offshore wind energy has the potential to cover the entire European electrical demand. The trend is evident: thanks to the farms in the final commissioning phase, one shall reach soon 16 GW worldwide, while the forecast for 2020 exceeds yet the 24 GW, therefore doubling the capacity (worldwide) within only 4 years. The true key of this trend is the rotor capacity, which has yet reached 8 MW each (s. the WTs installed off the Thames estuary): thanks to such large rotors (diameter: 160m; tower height: about 140m), that cannot certainly be installed onshore, the efficiency of offshore wind farms increases enormously.