2023-07-07 12:23:52
The State has decided to contribute at least 65 million euros to a pilot project of tidal turbines, a technology in development which uses ocean currents to produce energy, the Ministry of Energy Transition announced on Friday. Objective stated by the government: “to consolidate a French industrial sector of tidal turbines 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.
In France, some of the strongest currents in the world
It will be supported within the framework of the France 2030 plan up to “65 million euros minimum”, and will also benefit from a preferential purchase price for 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 should 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 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) .
“Developing other marine sectors”
“Renewable marine 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 the 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 to state support, greatly reduced following the bankruptcy in 2018 of a player in the sector. At the end of 2020, the EU also set a target of 40 GW of ocean energy capacity, excluding offshore wind, by 2050.
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