HydroQuest to deploy tidal demo off Brittany

French hydrokinetic technology developer, HydroQuest, will together with Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) install 1MW hydrokinetic tidal turbine off Brittany, France.

The project was selected by French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME) through the ‘Marine renewable energies and pilot river turbine farms’ call for projects, funded by the French government.

It will be implemented with support from the University of Caen Normandie, and involves installing 1MW ocean hydrokinetic tidal turbine at the Paimpol-Bréhat site starting from the second half of 2017, as part of an agreement with EDF.

The demonstrator’s goal is to validate this machine’s performance under real operating conditions, with plans for commercialization on an international scale by 2019, according to HydroQuest.

Jean-François Simon, CEO of HydroQuest, said: “Following the validation of our demonstrator’s operation, our goal will be to implement pilot farms with a few turbines in France and around the world. We will then move forward with the installation of commercial farms starting in 2019, thus participating in the energy transition that is already taking place.”

Pierre Balmer, CEO of CMN, added: “The partnership surrounding the demonstrator is part of our growth strategy for marine renewable energies, a sector which will become one of the pillars for our company over time, in addition to our historical activity in naval construction.”

HydroQuest Ocean turbine will be built at CMN workshops in Cherbourg, ahead of trials in real operating conditions for several months.