The EOLMAR 2012 project, the first year of a three-year research program launched by RSE (2012-2014), has started studies and experiments with the ultimate aim of improving knowledge of wind and marine resources and providing measures and methodologies to promote the further development of generation from these sources on the national territory, in line with the objectives set by European energy policy. In addition, the project aimed to contribute both to a reliable estimation of the real residual wind capacity and to a better evaluation of the energy resource in some marine areas of our country.

As regards the wind energy source, the main results obtained through project activities can be summarized as follows:
– installation of a buoy for offshore anemometric measurements (MOBI) off the coast of Mazara del Vallo and two coastal stations for the expansion of the RSE measurement network;
– analysis of existing wind farms through the use of software tools used for micrositing studies in some typical national situations (highly exploited areas, situations with high uncertainty on resource data, complex terrain, repowering hypotheses)
– analysis of port characteristics in the development of offshore wind power in Italy.

As for the marine source, the project achieved the following results:
– preparation for the installation of wave motion and current measurement stations in the Port of Civitavecchia and off the coast of Mazara del Vallo;
– analysis of wave motion data for the completion of the national potential assessment of southern Sicily;
– data collection and analysis for the evaluation of osmotic energy potential.