Sabella’s tidal power production curve gets Bureau Veritas seal

Certification & Classification

December 5, 2022, by Edin Neimarlija

French tidal energy developer Sabella has verified the power production curve of its D10 turbine through a certification issued by the classification group Bureau Veritas.

Immersed off Ushant Island in France, Sabella’s 1MW tidal energy turbine is now one step closer towards large-scale commercialization with the latest milestone reached by the company.

Namely, Bureau Veritas confirmed the D10 turbine’s production performance in different current speeds encountered at the Fromveur site, where the turbine has been deployed since April 2022, through assessment carried out in accordance with IEC standard, which sets out the rules applicable to electrical production equipment.

Aside from the production curves, Bureau Veritas also certified the instruments used for the measurement and their appropriate adjustment to the specific constraints of the site.

The electricity generated by the turbine, being fed into the Ushant Island’s grid for eight months now, provides up to 49% of island’s electricity consumption, demonstrating a real potential of the decarbonization process of the island located at the southwestern end of the English Channel.

Fanch Le Bris, Sabella’s CEO, said: “The certification of the power curve of our machine allows us to guarantee our future customers the performance of the machine and to make the future production of commercial farms more reliable. This is an important step at a time when the search for all solutions enabling the production of clean energy must be a priority both for the energy autonomy of our territories, but also and above all to limit global warming.“

Benoît Bazire, the chairman of Sabella, added: “One of Sabella’s strategic missions is to put our expertise and know-how at the service of the decarbonization of non-interconnected zones like Ushant. The certification of the power curve of our turbine will be a key lever for our international development and the assurance for our partners of a production of the machine in accordance with our forecasts.“