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PRIMRE/Databases/Projects Database/Projects/Enermar Pilot Plant
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Enermar Pilot Plant
The Enermar Pilot Plant was launched in 2001 in the Strait of Messina financed by Ponte di
Archimede S.p.A., the Regione Siciliana Government and the European Community, featuring the installation of the Kobold turbine. The project site was 150 m offshore the Sicilian coast in the Strait of Messina, where the average speed of the tidal current is between 1.5-2 m/s, although there are some areas in the strait where the velocity peaks can reach more than 3 m/s. While the turbine installed for this project had a maximum rated capacity of 70 kW, at 2 m/s it only produced about 25–30 kW. In 2006, the Kobold turbine became one of the first marine devices to be connected to a national electricity grid.
The mooring system for the Kobold vertical-axis turbine consisted of four anchoring blocks in water depths of 18 to 25 m. The turbine (a 6 m cross-flow rotor, equipped with three blades with a span of 5 m) was installed under a buoyant support platform, designed by Ponte di Archimede International, that housed the gearbox, a 160 kW synchronous generator and the necessary electrical equipment.
Additional Information
Project Status
Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?
Inactive
Project Life Cycle
Project Progress through life cycle:
- Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment
- Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active
- Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water
- Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations
- Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water
Completed
Max Rated Power Capacity
The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.
0.03 MW
Operational Duration
2001 - 2016
Project Duration
2001 - 2016
Energy Resource
- Tidal
Project Scale
Full-scale
Number of Devices
1
Grid Connectivity
Grid Connected
Waterbody
Strait of Messina
Site Characteristics
Geographic characterization for the project location:
- Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land
- Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary
- Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water
- Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land
- River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water
Constricted Channel
Country
Italy
Environmental Details
Last Modified
10 June 2025
This Project has the following MRE Devices
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Citation Formats
“Enermar Pilot Plant.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Enermar_Pilot_Plant. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.
Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Enermar Pilot Plant." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Enermar_Pilot_Plant.
