French tidal energy developer, Sabella, is expecting to wrap up the year 2016 with several projects moving forward to the next phase of development.
Namely, Sabella is making progress on its Asian projects in Indonesia and Philippines, with the upcoming agreement with a new partner for Indonesian tidal energy project expected to be signed in a few weeks, Jean-Christophe Allo, Business Development Manager for Sabella, said.
To remind, last year Sabella signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesian firms PLP, and MEINDO, for the development of a tidal energy project with the capacity of up to 2.5MW that would power remote areas of the country.
When it comes to the Philippines, Sabella is finalizing resource assessment of San Bernardino Strait, where the project being developed together with H&WB Asia Pacific, will be located.
The engineering phase for a 5MW tidal energy project will start before end of 2016, Allo confirmed.
As reported earlier, the turbines planned to be used for the Philippines’ project will be Sabella’s new D15 tidal turbines, with the maximum power output of 2MW.
Back in France, Sabella is preparing to reinstall D10 turbine in the Fromveur Strait, off Ushant island, by the end of October or early November, subject to weather conditions.
“It will complete our in-situ sea trials and give us more data to work on the improvement of the technology and optimization of costs and performance. This highlights our insular energy model that we want to implement on a larger scale in Ushant with Akuo Energy in 2019/2020 with storage and other renewable energies. The target is to make Ushant a fuel free Island by 2025,” Jean-Christophe Allo said.
Earlier this year, Sabella retrieved its 1MW D10 tidal turbine after being deployed for one year in the Fromveur Strait.