Sabella sends off D10 tidal turbine to installation site

French company Sabella has started the redeployment operation of its D10 tidal energy turbine at the Fromveur Passage site, near Ushant island in France.

After two years of optimization and maintenance, the 1MW tidal energy turbine has reached the site where it was once tested for over a year to take up another round of trials, and – once more – supply clean electricity to the residents of Ushant island.

The redeployment operation began on October 14, 2018, after the D10 turbine and associated equipment were mobilized onboard the 98-meter long Solstad Fastad’s Far Superior vessel, and subsequently, transported to the installation site.

According to Jean-Christophe Allo, Business Development Manager for Sabella, the marine operations will continue for the next couple of days, and will cover preparatory works, deployment of the turbine, connection to the export cable, and final system surveys.

“The first window for the turbine deployment will be tonight [October 15,2018] but it can be postponed subject to wave conditions,” said Allo.

The upcoming campaign will see the optimized D10 turbine submerged at the bottom of Fromveur Strait for three years of performance and other testing activities.

It follows on from the 2015-2016 testing campaign, during which the turbine produced and exported tidal power to the French national electricity grid.

Sabella’s D10 turbine has a rotor diameter of 10 meters and a height of 17 meters, with the weight of around 400 tons.

The second open-sea testing campaign is being conducted as part of the ICE project.

Led by BDI (Brittany Innovation Development agency), the ICE project will seek to develop and implement a new energy scheme for Ushant Island by coupling energy storage systems, different renewable energy sources and smart-grid systems.