Energy potential from off-shore wind farm in the Mediterranean sea

In recent years increasing interest has been shown in producing electricity from renewable sources, mainly due to the growing concern for environmental issues which regard the entire planet and which are strictly related to industrialised society. The same importance is played by the increased cost of non-renewable energy sources, in particular fuel\oil, caused by the growing demand resulting from the appearance of new players such as China and India, which production cannot keep up with. For these reasons, at the end of 2008 the European Parliament approved the climate-energy objective 20/20/20 packet aimed at achieving the development guideline which the EU has set itself for 2020: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, increase energy savings to 20% and increase consumption from renewable sources to 20%. The role of renewable energy is therefore central to European policy and the achievement of this ambitious goal cannot but imply the increasing use of wind which, is at present the best available solution for generating electricity from renewable sources. This paper sets out to explore the presence of potential sites in the Mediterranean sea which could be exploited in the short term and to identify the areas where the installation, management and production of electricity using off-shore wind farms would be economically feasible. The aim is to demonstrate that while not achieving the high levels of implementation of the North Sea, the Mediterranean area can, in the next few years, give a precious contribution to renewable energy sources.