Due to the infrastructural complexity of the proposed plant and the impossibility of fully defining all technical choices at the start of the permitting process, it was necessary to develop the design package of the offshore section using a conservative approach known as the Design Envelope Approach. This approach considers the “maximum design scenario” for each environmental component examined in the Environmental Impact Study, meaning the design option with the worst environmental impact. The Design Envelope Approach ensures that a certain degree of technical flexibility is maintained in the permitting phase. This allows the wind farm design to be fully defined in the subsequent executive design phase, without the risk of producing greater impacts than those assessed and approved by the competent bodies.
Based on the described approach and the design hypothesis proposed in the voluntary scoping phase, WSP developed a technical and economic feasibility package in early 2023. This was carried out in accordance with the provisions of Legislative Decree 50/2016 and the MiMs (Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility) Guidelines.
The package includes the following elaborations:
- Analysis of project constraints according to national, regional, provincial, and municipal planning criteria;
- Structural descriptions of the type and geometric and performance characteristics of the proposed foundation structures (floaters, mooring lines and wind turbine anchors);
- Electrical descriptions of the subdivision of the offshore section and preliminary calculations of the export power cables and connection to the national grid;
- Geological and geotechnical framing of the offshore and onshore works based on the site-specific investigations carried out by the Proponent;
- Descriptions of the planned measures for maintenance and operation of the plant during operation;
- Economics of the work, such as metric computation and economic framework;
- Navigational hazards and emergency measures planned in case of major accidents (blade detachment, large drifting elements, etc.);
- Construction site and methodology for the construction of the plant, including the definition of the general technical requirements for the setting up of the port and auxiliary equipment necessary for the construction of the wind farm;
- Meteorologicaland oceanographic data, containing the qualitative and quantitative description of the wind, wave and current characteristics of the stretch of sea affected by the project and including the specialized studies to estimate the effects produced by the construction of the wind farm (sediment dispersion modelling, wave modelling assessment before and after operations, etc.).
The assignment includes WSP’s continuous support during the normal phase of consultation with the Bodies and Stakeholders.
