2023-07-07 12:13:25
France has some of the strongest currents in the world, with a potential for tidal turbines estimated between 3 and 5 GW, located mainly in the Raz-Blanchard and in the Fromveur, off the island of Ouessant (Finistère) .
This Friday, July 7, the Ministry of Energy Transition announced that the State has decided to provide
at least 65 million euros
a pilot project for tidal turbines, a technology under development that uses ocean currents to produce energy. Objective stated by the government:
“consolidate a French industrial tidal stream
with export prospects”, with the aim of decarbonizing energies.
This project, called “Flowatt” and carried by the companies Hydroquest and Qair, is located in the English Channel in the area of Raz-Blanchard, very rich in currents. It will be supported as part of the France 2030 plan
up to “65 million euros minimum”,
and will benefit in addition to a preferential purchase price of the electricity produced, indicates the ministry. This 17.5 megawatt (MW) pilot project is made up of seven turbines, designed by Hydroquest and built by the CMN shipyards in Cherbourg. It must be commissioned
by 2026
for operation over 20 years.
Previously, Hydroquest had tested its technology for two years via a 1 MW demonstrator in Paimpol-Bréhat. France has currents
among the strongest in the world,
with a potential for tidal turbines estimated at between 3 and 5 GW, located mainly in the Raz-Blanchard and in the Fromveur, off the island of Ouessant (Finistère).
Renewable marine energies are “a pillar of our energy strategy”
“Marine renewable energies are
a pillar of our energy strategy.
Offshore wind power is the main axis, but we must also
develop other marine sectors,
in a logic of diversification and decarbonization of our energy mix”, underlines Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, quoted in a press release.
While the public authorities must set the country’s new energy roadmap in the coming months, tidal turbine operators are demanding
a return of state support,
sharply reduced following the bankruptcy in 2018 of a player in the sector. The EU has also set itself a target for the end of 2020 of
40 GW of ocean energy capacity
excluding offshore wind by 2050.
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