HydroQuest brings tidal energy turbine ashore after two years in operation off France

French marine energy company HydroQuest has retrieved its 1MW tidal energy turbine after two years of being submerged and operating at the Paimpol-Bréhat site in the French province of Brittany.

Deployed since April 2019, the 1MW tidal turbine – designed by HydroQuest and built by the Cherbourg-based shipyard CMN (Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie) – was disconnected from the power grid during several operations carried out between April and early September 2021.

The operation to remove the turbine and its foundation from the waters offshore Brittany was completed at the end of September.

After the retrieval, the 1MW turbine – dubbed OceanQuest – was transported to the Port of Cherbourg, for the assessment that will be performed in the coming months.

Originally scheduled for a period of one year, the tidal turbine tests were extended for another year to get the most out of the trial campaign.

In the meantime, the OceanQuest turbine had been validated by Bureau Veritas, which issued a power curve certification to the developer in 2020.

The second year of testing was funded within the framework of the €45.4 million EU-backed TIGER project, which aims to accelerate the growth of tidal stream energy at sites in and around the English Channel region.

The two years of continuous operation on the very demanding site of Paimpol-Bréhat, owned by EDF, made it possible to certify the power curve of the machine and to prove its robustness, with an availability close to 90%, HydroQuest said.

Also, the characterization of the marine tidal resource and the understanding of associated natural phenomena have been significantly improved during the trials.

The operational results, along with the obtained technical and environmental measurements, will be presented this autumn, HydroQuest informed.

Thanks to the thousands of hours of operation accumulated on its demonstrator, HydroQuest has designed a new generation of tidal turbines that are said to be even more efficient, more powerful, while also being lighter to increase their competitiveness.

These new tidal turbines will equip the FloWatt project, a pilot farm of seven machines each rated at 2.5MW of unit power at Raz Blanchard, in the French region of Normandy.

The 17.5MW tidal energy farm will be developed in partnership with Qair Marine, a subsidiary of a French independent renewable power producer Qair.

The Raz Blanchard tidal energy farm will be operated over a period of 20 years and is expected to produce 40 million kWh/year, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of 20,000 people, according to project partners.