The Barium Bay offshore wind project has obtained a positive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) decree from Italy's Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, according to Hope Group's release.
Situated over 45 kilometers off the coast between Bari and Barletta in the Apulia Region, the project is a collaboration between Galileo, a pan-European renewable energy platform, and Hope Group, an Italian renewable energy plant designer.
With a planned capacity of 1,110 megawatts (MW), Barium Bay is the largest floating offshore wind farm to achieve this milestone in both Italy and the Mediterranean Sea.
The EIA decree follows approvals from the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Culture, enabling the project to participate in the FER 2 Decree auction procedure, which allocates long-term Contracts for Difference to 3,800 MW of offshore wind energy.
The project will feature two offshore substations with fixed-bottom foundations, leveraging favorable bathymetric conditions. It is expected to generate over 3 billion kilowatt-hours annually, sufficient to meet the energy needs of more than one million Italian households.
Galileo is a pan-European platform dedicated to the development and investment in the renewable energy sector. Galileo's project pipeline exceeds 16 gigawatts, covering photovoltaic, onshore and offshore wind, and energy storage systems across ten European countries, including Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Sweden.
Hope Group specializes in the development of large renewable energy production plants, aiming to contribute actively to the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda endorsed by the United Nations.