Here comes the days to renewable energy, zero pollution, no waste and no visual impact. One possibility is then to convert water currents into electricity. Since the La Rance tidal power plant, near Saint-Malo, in Brittany, which has had its days and that the maintenance cost is high because of the salty marine environment, new technologies have appeared.
One of the first projects is Hydrohelix, from the society Sabella in Quimper. There was first a prototype tested in the estuary of the river Odet, at Benodet. Then a first embodiment of a scale tidal turbine of 10 meters in diameter, the D10 project, intended to be submerged in Fromveur late 2012 – early 2013. This unit will be installed at a depth of 55 meters, capturing the powerful currents of the place, (about nine knots), have a capacity of 500kW, and is intended to supply 500 homes on the island of Ouessantt.
The ambition of Hydrohelix is to be able to offer short-term to Canadian authorities marine turbines for the St. Laurent river at Montreal.
However, this is not the technology that EDF has chosen for the experimental phase of the future marine turbines tidal farm off Paimpol-Bréhat. EDF selected the project of the Irish company OpenHydro.
It seems that it is the simplicity but also the economic aspect which explains the choice: the installation of these turbines requires no work underwater drilling or anchoring, since they rely directly on the seabed, just fixed on a metal tripod structure, plus the turbines are brought on their holdings by a kind of barge specially designed for this purpose, through which they can then be retrieved in the same way for maintenance, or relocation.
The first of these giant turbines (16 meters in diameter, weighing 700 tons), was built by the shipyard DCNS at Brest, and transported to the disposal site off Bréhat by a special barge built by STX shipyard in Lorient.
After three months spent under waters off Bréhat, and a battery of tests carried out by EDF, the tidal marine turbine was lifted to the surface for examination. Next steps: Return of the turbine off Bréhat during the summer of 2012, for further tests, so they can deliver the first KWh; validation of the project; and commissioned for 2013 the entire marine turbines fleet which will be four turbines in production .
Experiment to discover during your stay in our brittany holiday rentals with heated swimming pool of “Domaine du Moustoir” – Gites, Cottages, apartments, rentals, vacation homes, villas, mobile homes, self-caterings, country houses, coastal holiday houses for rent, accommodations – at Saint- Evarzec, near the seaside, the beaches, and la Forêt-Fouesnant, Concarneau, Quimper, Benodet ( pets welcome, free WiFi), Pont-Aven.
