Tocco da Casauria
Tocco di Vento
Four 800kW ENERCON E-48 wind turbines, with a total installed power of 3.2 MW.
Tocco di Vento was conceived as the revamping of Italy’s first wind farm, which consisted of two now outdated 200 kW Riva Calzoni turbines, installed in Tocco da Casauria (Pescara) in 1992.
Tocco di Vento is immersed in an age-old olive grove, which still today produces typical, renowned Tuscan olives. FERA has rehabilitated the area under the turbines, reinserting the olive trees that had been removed in 1992, and starting a new cultivation initiative based on the principles of organic farming. Every year, the olives are harvested whole by hand and cold-pressed at the ancient mill in Tocco, in order to produce a particularly suavely fragrant olive oil.
In 2007, conjointly with the Municipality of Stella (Savona), Tocco da Casauria won a special mention in the PIMBY – “Please In My Backyard” award for its “Contribution to demonstrating how infrastructure and environmental protection can be reconciled when environmental balance and landscape harmony are taken into special consideration”.
The site is a popular destination for guided tours and an object of study in the context of European projects for the development of renewables (e.g. for OECD delegations and in the context of the “Regions 4 Green” project).
On 28th September 2010, Tocco da Casauria had the honour of featuring on the front page of the New York Times, with a description of the Abruzzo town as a virtuous administrative model oriented towards innovative energy supply, thanks to the wind farm built by FERA. (read the article here)
Images of the Tocco di Vento Wind Farm
CHARACTERISTICS & ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
- Production start: 2006
- Installed power: 3.2 MW
- Annual production: electricity needs of 3,000 households
- CO2 saving per year: 4,000 tonnes
- Oil barrel saving (over 20 years): 200,000
- Total trade balance saving (over 20 years): Euro 17 million
TURBINEs
- 4 Enercon E48 turbines
- Nominal power: 800 kW
- Diameter: 48 m
- Height: 50 and 60 m