General Electric (GE) has reportedly decided to not pursue further development of the Oceade tidal turbine, which resulted in Engie shelving the tidal array demo project planned for Raz Blanchard, off France.
The two companies were selected in 2014 to develop a tidal array demonstration farm off Raz Blanchard, France, where GE was tasked with supplying four Oceade 1.4-18 tidal turbines for the project dubbed NEPTHYD.
However, GE has decided to suspend the development of the Oceade tidal turbine and redeployed around 40 of its employees working on tidal developments across its other activities, mainly in offshore wind, French financial daily newspaper Les Echos reports.
As a result, Engie has decided to shelve the NEPTHYD project citing ‘lack of supplier’ as the reason, according to Les Echos.
The construction of the 5.6MW NEPTHYD project was slated for 2017. Once constructed, the project was expected to supply 5,000 households with electricity.
Furthermore, the project was supposed to receive support from the French government through a direct grant and repayable advances, which was authorized by the European Commission, back in July 2016.
To remind, GE acquired power and grid businesses from Alstom, which also included renewables, in 2015.