Gabrile Botta*, Claudio Andrea Casale*, Ettore Lembo*, Stefano Maran*, Laura Serri* Giuseppe Stella*, Silvano Viani* EWEC 2007 Milano, 7-10 Maggio 2007 * CESI RICERCA A general atlas of Italy’s wind resources has been developed by CESI RICERCA in co-operation with the Department of Physics of the University of Genoa to provide local authorities and plant developers with a tool for singling out the best promising areas where the deployment of wind farms could be focused. In the first work phase the wind patterns all over Italy were simulated. A wind flow model (WINDS) was used to obtain preliminary wind maps from geostrophic wind data, taking into account orography and terrain roughness. These maps were validated by comparing wind speeds with those measured by 240 met stations. A full atlas (Atlante eolico dell’Italia) thus became ready, with maps of wind speed and specific energy production (MWh/MW). More recently, work was resumed to develop an improved, interactive version of the same atlas (ATLAEOLICO), including also offshore areas up to 40 km from the coastline. Wind data from another 176 stations were used to validate the offshore maps and to adjust the on-land wind estimates further. On the basis of the atlas, some evaluations of the country’s overall wind potential were also performed by selecting areas actually exploitable for wind farms. Albeit with unavoidable approximation, this screening showed that a capacity of about 6000 MW could be installed on land under today’s conditions. This potential could rise up to 10000-12000 MW if sites with higher economic or environmental worth were also developed. The offshore potential could be 900-1900 MW in shallow waters, and rise further if deeper waters were used in the future.