France: €10 million for marine renewables projects

Ten companies have been awarded €10 million total for research and development projects related to marine renewable energy.

Following a call for projects issued in July this year by the French National Research Agency (ANR), in collaboration with France Energies Marines (FEM), with the aim of advancing the French marine renewables sector by developing knowledge and tools through competitive industrial research, 10 winners were announced on December 22, 2015.

The main themes covered by these projects are site characterization, modeling and evaluation of environmental impacts and technology development, and it is expected that the data acquired from the projects would help develop French marine energy sector, according the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME).

The following projects were granted funding:

• HYD2M / PHYSIC / THYMOTE: characterization and modeling of different complementary aspects of tidal resources at Raz Blanchard,
• TROPHIK: modeling the role of offshore wind turbines in changing the functioning of coastal food webs,
• BENTHOSCOPE 2: monitoring the impacts of marine renewable energy on the benthic compartment,
• INDUSCOL: sustainability of multi-material structures in renewable marine energy,
• EOLINK: new concept of floating wind turbine (structure, float and anchor system),
• OMDYN: development of dynamic umbilicals,
• 3MDDTA: 3D modeling tidal stream marine parks,
• HYFLOELFLU: development of innovative tidal technology for rivers.

The projects were awarded €9.68 million, with €4 million provided by the Future Investment Programme launched by the French government.

ADEME states that ANR will launch new €3 million call for projects in the first quarter of 2016.