Inauguration of the second tidal turbine for the EDF Paimpol-Bréhat project
May 16, in Brest, Ségolène Royal, French Minister for the Environment, Energy and Maritime Affairs, responsible for international Climate relations, inaugurated the second DCNS/OpenHydro tidal turbine for the EDF Paimpol-Bréhat tidal-turbine demonstration farm project, in the presence of Hervé Guillou, Chairman and CEO of DCNS, and Antoine Cahuzac, Group Senior Executive Vice President, Renewable Energies and CEO of EDF Energies Nouvelles.
The EDF Paimpol-Bréhat tidal-turbine demonstration farm project relates to the commissioning of two 16-metre diameter DCNS/OpenHydro tidal turbines connected to a common underwater converter, designed and produced by General Electric, which will convert energy into direct current to transport it to the coast. These turbines will form the first tidal-turbine farm, in France and worldwide, to be connected to the national power distribution grid.
The second tidal turbine, today presented to Ségolène Royal, will soon be taken to its operating site off the coast of Ploubazlanec. It will leave Brest after completing the mechanical and electrical performance test phase currently underway. It will then be installed on the sea bed, at a depth of almost 40 metres, next to its twin already installed earlier this year on 20 January. The goal is now to connect the two tidal turbines to the power network in summer 2016.
Hervé Guillou, Chairman and CEO of DCNS announces that: “The development of tidal-turbine technologies represents an extraordinary opportunity to capitalise on DCNS’s industrial know-how. We have the good fortune of receiving the support of the French government and the local authorities for our projects and in particular for that of the Paimpol-Bréhat farm, which will allow us to validate the economic model for tidal-turbine farms. To ensure that a veritable tidal-turbine industrial sector can emerge, we have already announced our desire to see the publication within the next few months of a governmental call for tender for commercial farms, which will provide us with the required visibility to guarantee that France occupies first place in the global race for the development of this new market.”
Antoine Cahuzac, Group Senior Executive Vice President, Renewable Energies and CEO of EDF Energies Nouvelles, states that: “Through its innovative capacity, the EDF Group, European leader for renewable energies, firmly believes and invests in new technologies and in particular marine renewable energies. Tidal-turbine technology, experimented in partnership with DCNS on the EDF Paimpol-Bréhat site, forms part of these promising new zero carbon emission energy sources. The success of this project is a key milestone before the realisation by EDF Energies Nouvelles of a larger- scale tidal-turbine farm, with the medium-term aim of creating a new industrial sector in France.”