This paper describes the preliminary design of a floating support structure for offshore wind turbines that has been developed by ERSE (former CESI RICERCA). It considered the prospects that this kind of structure could hold for exploiting wind resources in the windiest sea areas along the coasts of Italy (Sardinia, Sicily, Apulia). A review of the various types of floating structure that have been devised worldwide for wind turbines has made it possible to single out the floating structure that looks most interesting from the technical and economic standpoint. Specifically, the selected structure is of the Tension Leg Platform (TLP) type. It consists of a nearly fully submerged hexagonal platform, which carries a 6 MW wind turbine and is linked to the sea bottom by 6 ties, which assure stability and limited tilting, even under the worst loads induced by wind and sea. The construction and installation phases for this structure have been analysed, and the most effective and economically viable techniques chosen. With a view for avoiding the use of expensive sea craft, the floating structure has been designed in such a way that it can be towed to its site with the wind turbine already standing on it. A preliminary dimensioning of the floating structure has been carried out, along with technical verification of the main structural members. This work has been performed in cooperation with the engineering company TECON, which used, among others, the MOSES computation code by Ultramarine. Attention has also been devoted to the most suitable options for mooring the floating structure to the sea bottom. To assess the behaviour of the floating system under the action of wind and waves, the computational code (BM) has been developed by ERSE. This code takes into account the whole “wind turbine + floating platform” system, represented by a scheme featuring 8 degrees of freedom. Using this code no anomalous or unexpected behaviours were observed. The costs of building and installing this floating system have been calculated, drawing on experience gained with similar offshore structures in the oil and gas fields. The unique conditions of Italy as regards shipyards, harbours, electrical grid layout etc. have been taken into account. Along with estimates of operation and maintenance costs, and annual energy yields, these results have allowed the calculation of the probable unit energy production costs of floating wind farms in deep-water coastal areas of Italy.

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In the near future cities will have to supply innovative and high value-added mobility services with respect for environmental, traffic and energy sustainability. It is a great challenge since transportation represents over 20% of the global energy consumption, 40% of which is in urban areas. In this context RSE has developed the project STORM (Strategies TOwaRds a sustainable Mobility) which aims to study smart and sustainable solutions and policies in urban mobility planning in order to supply passengers and goods mobility, with respect to economic, energy-efficiency and environmental targets. This paper investigates the impact and benefits of different mobility solutions and policies by applying a multimodal transport model. The Milan area is used as test case for two main reasons: first, its high population density and strong transport offer and second, the large amount of information and data available on passengers' mobility within this area. By assuming that the mobility demand is a constant, 8 mobility scenarios have been tested on the Milan area, which can be classified into two main groups: 4 measures to strengthen the public transport offer; 4 measures to restrict and discourage the use of private vehicles or introduce a relevant share of electric vehicles. Finally, three combinations of these scenarios were made in order to evaluate the impact of a deep and broad transformation of the current mobility trends. For each scenario a cost/benefit analysis was made in terms of energy efficiency, traffic reduction and environmental impact in order to draw up a ranking of the most advantageous and promising measures for urban mobility.

The Wind Atlas of Italy, first developed in 2002, was refined by ERSE (former CESI RICERCA S.p.A.) in 2006, when it was also enlarged to offshore areas up to 40 km from the coastline. It displays maps of annual average wind speed (m/s) and specific energy production (MWh/MW) up to 100 m above ground or sea. This Atlas is published in an interactive version (named ATLAEOLICO). The Italian Wind Atlas is based on maps calculated using the WINDS model developed by the Department of Physics of the University of Genoa and has then been fine-tuned by comparison with measuring data from over 400 stations scattered all over Italy. Concerning offshore areas, the calibration of maps resulted more difficult because of the lack of direct measurements. The resulting uncertainty of wind maps over offshore areas has been estimated from a minimum of 2 m/s to a maximum of more than 3 m/s, which results in an uncertainty of no less than 1000 MWh/MW in specific energy production, too high for reliable evaluation of energy production. To reduce this uncertainty, a new wind measuring station has recently been installed at Pianosa, a small uninhabited and flattish island located in the Adriatic Sea off the Gargano promontory, one of the offshore areas with higher discordance of wind speed values among the various maps published so far. This island could also be taken as representative of the transition from the southern zone with better resources to the less promising northern part of the Adriatic Sea. This paper presents the results of the first eight months of measurements at this station. These results have been analyzed by commercial codes for wind resource assessment and then compared with available information on wind resources in the same area, mostly measurements from satellite and coastal stations, and other published wind atlases.