Our newest order is heading for a small volcanic island in the middle of the Strait of Sicily, 106 km from Sicily and 68 km from Tunisia. Meet Pantelleria, the island the Arabs named the Daughter of the Winds.
Pantelleria is only 83 square kilometres, yet it is the largest volcanic satellite island of Sicily. About 7,150 people live here among black lava rocks, domed stone houses called dammusi, terraces of Zibibbo vines and a turquoise crater lake, the Specchio di Venere. On a clear day you can see the coast of Tunisia. The island is reached by air or by ferry from Sicily, and now also by a TESUP parcel.
Bint al-Riyāḥ, the Daughter of the Winds
The Arabs, who ruled the island from the year 700, called it Bint al-Riyāḥ, Daughter of the Winds, after the strong gales that sweep up from the North African coast. The name fits. Everything people built here was built against the wind. The dammusi have thick dry-stone walls of black lava and low domed roofs that catch rainwater. In the giardino pantesco, a round stone wall shelters a single citrus tree from wind and salt. And the island's Zibibbo vines are grown as low bushes in hollows dug into the soil, out of the wind's reach. In 2014 UNESCO added this vite ad alberello technique to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the first agricultural practice ever to receive that honour.
Born of fire
Pantelleria is the tip of a volcano rising from the sea floor. Two huge eruptions, about 114,000 and 45,000 years ago, left the calderas that shape the island today; ash from the second one has been found as far away as the Greek island of Lesbos. Montagna Grande, at 836 metres, is the summit. The last eruption, in 1891, happened under water off the north-west coast, but the volcano is far from asleep: hot springs bubble along the shore, steam rises from fumaroles, a natural sauna fills a small cave, and the Specchio di Venere lake is fed by rain and hot springs. Since 2016 a national park protects 80% of the island.
An Atlas blade set for the Daughter of the Winds
The parcel on its way across the strait with Poste Italiane contains an Atlas Low-Wind blade set. Every Atlas can be fitted with one of three swappable blade sets: Low-Wind for 2 to 20 m/s, Moderate-Wind for 4 to 25 m/s and High-Wind for 5 to 35 m/s. On an island named after the wind you might expect the high-wind set, but the low-wind blades are a clever choice for many sites. They start turning at just 2 m/s, so the turbine produces in the gentle sea breezes too, not only in the gales. And because the blades are aluminium, 65% lighter than steel, they respond the moment the wind picks up.
Why wind matters on a small island
Like most of Sicily's smaller islands, Pantelleria is not connected to the mainland grid and has to generate its own electricity. That makes every kilowatt-hour produced on the island valuable, and it makes the island's own resources, the sun and the wind that gave it its name, the obvious place to look. A turbine on a dammuso roof is a small step in that direction, and we are glad an Atlas is taking it. To our customer on Pantelleria: grazie, and enjoy the wind.
Sources: Wikipedia, Pantelleria; UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, vite ad alberello (2014). Satellite image: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023). Photographs: Michael Leithold (public domain). Engravings: L'Illustrazione Italiana, 1882.
Tune your Atlas to your wind
Low, moderate or high wind: Atlas comes with swappable aluminium blade sets so it fits your roof, wherever it is.
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