Marine renewables colloquium – Nantes © Ouest Médias
Full house at the marine renewables colloquium. More than 500 marine renewables professionals, a good number of them at the most senior level of their companies, attended the colloquium jointly organised by the Pays de la Loire Region and the French Renewable Energy Association.
Everyone in the world of the French wind turbine had an important date last week: last Thursday’s marine renewables colloquium in Nantes was a sellout. A success that came from beyond the borders of the Pays de la Loire—almost half of the 500 participants had come from other regions. Organised visits the day before had given more than 50 industrialists an opportunity to discover local marine renewables sites at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, the Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port, Alstom, and STX France.
Informal business to business meet-ups
The following day’s colloquium entitled “Offshore wind: a sector under construction,” took a wide view of the industry. The day began with an exchange of experiences between pioneers of the offshore wind turbine, followed by three round table discussions that addressed the key drivers for competitiveness, innovation, and developments in European policy in support of the sector. Alongside the turbine constructors and energy companies were Airbus’ Didier Katzenmayer, EDP R’s Frédéric Lanoë, Mélanie Persem of the Franco-German Office for Co-operation, Clare Daly representing Renewable UK, and Vincent Balès from WPD Offshore, allof whom greatly illuminated the topics under discussion.
The participants took ownership of the event, with more than 200 tweets and 62 questions relayed by SMS during the meeting; and the breaks were the occasion for numerous informal encounters between them. It was also the occasion for EDF Énergies Nouvelles to make its announcement that its future wind farms will be managed from Nantes.
