THEME 3 : OCEAN ENERGY / RENEWABLE ENERGY

Marine wind farms have until now been installed in waters no deeper than 30 metres on imposing foundations able to support turbines designed for land use. Located close to and sometimes within sight of the coast, these farms can give rise to conflicts of use. Hence the current interest in designing and perfecting floating offshore wind farms, which could be positioned a long way from the shore in depths exceeding 50 metres.

The Dutch company, Blue H, recently established a subsidiary in Brittany with the aim of developing a deep-water, floating wind turbine prototype. At the end of 2007, Blue H launched its 80 kW prototype off the south coast of Italy. The company now intends to work with its partners in designing, manufacturing and installing a full-scale, 3.5 MW floating offshore wind turbine, suitable for Atlantic sea and wind conditions. The methods deployed will minimise work carried out at sea and make it possible to construct giant-sized turbines.

Equipped with two 44-metre blades, the DIWET installation will be designed using the Tension Leg Platform (TLP) principle and will feature a semi-submerged platform tethered by chains to a counterweight, which will act as an artificial reef. The structure of the installation as a whole and the materials used will be adapted to the size of the wind turbine, the operational and maintenance conditions and the constraints of Atlantic Ocean weather. With the potential to generate 50 000 man hours, production of the DIWET prototype offers the Breton shipbuilding industry the opportunity to diversify in a rapidly expanding sector.

© Blue H France

DIWET PROJECT PARTNERS

Companies

• Blue H France, Rennes, project director, develops, manufactures, installs and operates deep-water floating wind turbines,

• Timolor, Lorient, engineering, construction and maintenance for shipbuilding and repair and for industry,

• Actimar, Brest, operational oceanography services for understanding the marine environment,

• Institut de la Corrosion, Brest, research and development, specialist consultancy, testing: corrosion in the marine environment, cathodic protection design, corrosion and cathodic protection monitoring,

• Astrium, Bordeaux, subsidiary of EADS, devoted to civil and military space systems and services and development of high-performance composites structures (design, dimensioning, testing and production methods)

Research centres

• École Centrale de Nantes, ship and offshore hydrodynamics, digital simulation of fluid dynamics and test tank experimentation,

• CETIM, (Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques – Centre for Mechanical Engineering Industries Research), Nantes, design, dimensioning and industrialisation of structures made from metals, composites and/or elastomers,

• Université de Bretagne occidentale, Laboratoire Brestois de Mécanique et des systèmes (Brest Mechanical Engineering and Systems Research Lab), processes for deploying composite materials

Contact

• Francois Huber, managing director, Blue H France, Cette adresse email est protégée contre les robots des spammeurs, vous devez activer Javascript pour la voir.