Deployment activities are progressing.
At present, the medium voltage electric cable is being installed.
The availability of good test sites is key for the development of WEC technologies
The plan is to have SEM-REV ready for operation by October 2012
Issued on 12th January 2011
<Leading international classification society Bureau Veritas has issued guidelines for the Classification and Certification of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines. The guidelines specify the environmental conditions under which floating offshore wind turbines may serve, the principles of structural design, load cases for the platform and mooring system, stability and the structural division and design criteria for the top structure. The Guidance Note NI 572 covers floating platforms supporting single- or multiple-turbines with horizontal or vertical axes.
Maxime Pachot, Offshore Wind Turbine Manager, Bureau Veritas, says, "There is growing demand for offshore wind turbines which can be safely installed in very deep water locations. They will use one or more types of floating platform to mount the turbine and may need a service life equivalent to offshore oil and gas projects. Both operators and authorities need to know these platforms are safe and will be up to the job. Although this is a new way of generating energy out at sea, it builds on proven technology and experience in offshore energy. These guidelines bring together Bureau Veritas’ experience with and rules for offshore floating units and moorings and marries them with the internationally accepted standards for wind turbines set out in IEC 61400-3: Wind turbines – Design requirements for offshore wind turbines. They will help field developers choose the right system and the right pathway for approval to meet local and international regulations and their own industrial requirements."
Three categories of floating platforms are covered: Ballast floating platforms that achieve stability by using ballast weights placed below a global buoyancy centre; Tension Leg Platforms (TLP), that achieve stability through the use of tendons; and Buoyancy floating platforms, that achieve stability by the use of distributed buoyancy.
The top structure with the rotor-nacelle and tower will be certified in accordance with International Standard IEC 61400-3 and/or national regulations. The floating platform on which the generating assembly is mounted will be classified by Bureau Veritas under its Rules for the Classification of Offshore Units (Offshore Rules), which also extend to cover the mooring system.
In addition to classification and certification of offshore wind projects, Bureau Veritas is able to provide extensive expertise in site analysis, meteo-ocean studies, hydrodynamic simulation and fatigue life planning and on-site inspection and maintenance.
Bureau Veritas is the only classification society partner in the EU HiPRWIND project which brings together 19 companies with the aim of developing enabling technology elements for deep-water offshore wind. It is also involved in certifying wind projects in a number of countries globally and has an extensive wind R&D programme.>
Ref: Bureau Veritas issues guidance for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
Announcement (on January 25th) by president of France, Sarkozy, of ambitious plans for offshore wind development (currently practically absent in France).
Declared objectives are: 3000 MW by 2015 raising to 6000 MW by 2020 for an investment estimated to be about 10 billion euro. Ambitious indeed.
Five sites identified: Dieppe-le Tréport, Fécamp, Courseulles-sur-mer, Saint -Brieuc and Saint-Nazaire. They are shown on the map below from the les energies de la mer site.
Hydrohélix Energies set to achieve a key milestone
Hydrohélix Energies is moving in the direction of a key milestone as its effort “could soon see twin tidal power stations operating off the North coast of France.”
According to a report filed by Environmental Data Interactive Exchange, an underwater power station will soon be turned into a large-scale demo of four underwater turbines sunk 20 metres below the English Channel off the coast of France. The turbines, eight metres in diameter, will generate 1MW of electricity.
Hydrohélix Energies’ spokesperson Hervé Majastre said the initial plan is to develop twin stations in Brest and Le Havre. With a three-hour tidal difference along the coast, one station would operate while the other suspended its activities, to ensure a continuous supply of electricity.
He added that Hydrohélix Energies has already received €200,000 from the French government, and now hopes to attract investors and engineering firms to build the first stations.
Earlier this year, marine developer TidalStream successfully validated the design of its 10MW tidal flow concept. Coventry-based TidalStream has been carrying out tests on a scale model of Triton at a deep water test basin at Ifremer in Brittany, France.
via Hydrohélix Energies set to achieve a key milestone | tidal today.
OpenHydro bags project from EDF
Published on Nov 4, 2008
Électricité de France (EDF) has chosen OpenHydro to develop the first tidal current demonstration farm to be connected to the French electricity grid.
The project involves the installation of at least four and up to 10 large seabed mounted marine turbines in a tidal farm located in the Paimpol-Bréhat (Côtes d'Armor) region of Brittany.
The turbines will be progressively connected to the French electricity network from 2011.
The project is expected to create up to 30 new jobs at OpenHydro's manufacturing facility at Greenore, Co. Louth.
The Irish renewable engineering company, which edged out four other tidal technology developers in the selection process, bagged the project on the basis of technical, environmental and financial criteria.
To its credit, OpenHydro became the first company to complete the connection of a tidal turbine and commence electricity generation onto the UK national grid in May this year. More recently, OpenHydro became the first company to deploy a free standing tidal turbine directly onto the sea-bed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. The turbines are being constructed at the company's technical design and assembly centre in Greenore, Co Louth, Ireland.
