Ushant Island gets a glimpse of tidal powered-future

French company Sabella has reached a new milestone in the demonstration of its tidal energy technology and brought the Ushant Island closer to fully decarbonizing its energy supply system.

Six months after the reinstallation of its 1MW tidal energy turbine in the Fromveur Passage offshore Ushant Island, Sabella has marked another milestone on its road to commercialize tidal energy industry.

Namely, the company informed that – for the first time – the residents of the island located at the southwestern end of the English Channel consumed more electricity produced from tidal energy than from the fossil fuel-powered generators.

The turbine started exporting power to Ushant Island’s grid around June 2022, initially starting with 100kW, which would later be increased to reach the maximum injection capacity allowed by the electricity network of the island.

Though only taking over the share of fossil fuels supply for a few minutes in the final week of October 2022, as Sabella confirmed on its social media, the feat offered a glimpse of the future where this island, and other remote, off-grid areas of the world, could exploit the energy of the tides to secure continuous, clean and renewable energy supply.

In addition, tidal energy can be coupled with other renewable energy sources – such as wind and solar – and energy storage technologies, which could further strengthen the energy mix on many remote locations around the globe.

This is also one of the goals of the third test campaign Sabella is currently conducting offshore Ushant Island, as it aims to prepare for the PHARES project that will take on the challenge of supplying the island with clean power sourced from the range of different renewable energy technologies.

The PHARES project, to be implemented by Sabella in partnership with Akuo Energy and other industry and government entities, will see the deployment of a multi-source energy system by pooling three renewable energy technologies together to demonstrate a hybrid island energy model.

The project will see the installation of two Sabella’s 500kW tidal energy turbines, together with close to 1MW-rated wind turbine, and a 480kW photovoltaic solar park. Also, an energy storage system will be installed as part of the project that foresees the penetration of up to 65% of renewable energies in the electricity production of Ushant Island, following its completion.

According to developers, the project is expected to significantly decarbonize the production of electricity for the 800 inhabitants of the island, which currently consumes 2 million liters of various fossil fuels per year.

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