Italy's Eni announces plans for three new offshore wind farms

March 22 (UPI) -- New agreements for offshore wind in Italy could add to a growing capacity that could meet the energy demands of more than a million homes, Italian energy company Eni said Wednesday.

GreenIT, Eni's joint venture with Italy's CDP Equity and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, signed an agreement to build three floating wind farms off the coast of Italy that would boast an overall capacity of approximately two gigawatts of energy.

Two are slated for offshore Sardinia and another is tapped for Latium, near the country's midwestern coast. All told, the partners said total offshore wind capacity could be enough to satisfy the demands of 2.5 million average homes.

"This new agreement represents an additional strategic step and a firm commitment to strengthening the floating offshore wind industry in Italy, providing a significant contribution towards a low-carbon future as well as encouraging the development of the local supply chain," Eni said.

Eni reported adjusted net profit for 2022 of $14.1 billion, its best performance in more than a decade. The company said natural gas was among its primary objectives, with the total share of natural gas in its production portfolio on pace to increase to 60% by 2030. It's been making strides, however, in some of the components necessary to lessen the global footprint of fossil fuels.

The company last month announced a prototype development called the Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter was connected to the grid on the Italian island of Pantelleria, the first such connection of its kind.

It said later that it made preliminary arrangements with an offshoot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to accelerate the rollout of industrial-scale fusion, a near-limitless form of energy.