NEW TIDAL ENERGY IN FRANCE

Alstom's marine hydropower business established at Nantes, France
December 3, 2010 (HydroWorld)

"Alstom has inaugurated the new premises of Alstom Hydro's ocean energy activities in Nantes, France…[and introduced] Beluga 9, the group's tidal electricity-generating turbine, which will undergo its first tests in 2012, in Canada's Bay of Fundy.

"Created in 2009…Alstom's ocean energy business will benefit from the skills of the Alstom group, a world leader in hydroelectric equipment, accounting for 25 percent of global installed hydropower capacity… Alstom's ocean energy activities will be located on the island of Nantes (Ile de Nantes) – historical site of the French shipyard industry…[Alstom will] design, manufacture and market a new generation of tidal turbine generators that can produce electricity from tidal currents…"

Beluga 9 (click to enlarge)

"The 1-MW Beluga 9, intended for very powerful currents (up to 4.5 meters per second, or 9 knots, on the surface during spring tides) will be Alstom's first tidal turbine generator…[I]t will have a diameter of 13 meters and a total height of 20 meters, the equivalent of a six-storey building. It will be suited to sites at depths of 30 meters or more, such as in the English Channel.

"…[T]he Nantes division has just begun preliminary studies for the development of a second model, intended for sites at greater depths where the tides are less powerful."

Beluga 9 in Nantes (click to enlarge)

"If all suitable underwater locations were equipped with tidal generators, it would be possible to generate 100 TWh of electricity annually: enough to supply power to 20 million households in Western Europe…"

[Philippe Cochet, senior vice president, Alstom Hydro and Wind:] "There is a considerable potential market for tidal energy, estimated between 50 and 100 gigawatts (GW) worldwide, of which France and the United Kingdom account for 10 percent…[It is] possible to predict the amount of [tidal] energy that will be produced with complete accuracy, and tidal turbine generators are completely invisible once they are submerged. We are now entering an industrialization and testing phase…"