Tocco di Vento began in 2007 as a revamp of the first wind power plant to be built in Italy: two Riva Calzoni turbines of 200 kW each, installed in Tocco da Casauria in 1992 which had outdated technology.

The first two 800kW ENERCON E-48 wind turbines, immersed in a centuries-old olive grove which produces Tocco’s characteristic and prized olives, were further added in 2009, for an installed total of 3.2 MW.

During the installation of the new turbine, we reinstated the olive trees which had been removed in 1992, starting a crop based on the principles of organic and sustainable agriculture. Every year the olives are hand-picked to ensure they are intact, and are then cold-pressed in the old oil mill in Tocco.

In 2007, with the municipality of Stella (SV), Tocco da Casauria received a special mention in the PIMBY (Please In My Backyard) award on the following grounds: ‘For having contributed to demonstrating how infrastructure and environmental protection can be reconciled when special consideration is given to environmental balance and landscape harmony’.

It is a destination for guided tours and has been the subject of studies in European projects for the development of renewables in Europe (OECD delegations, Regions 4 Green project).

On 28 September 2010, Tocco da Casauria made the front page of the New York Times: ‘the small Abruzzese village represents an ethical model of administration, oriented towards an innovative energy supply thanks to a wind farm built by FERA’.

In 2021, Legambiente included the Tocco da Casauria plant in its ‘Tourist Guide to Wind Farms’.