The S2E2 Smart electricity competitiveness cluster supports local players aiming to win new markets in intelligent electricity. S2E2 is particularly active in the marine renewable energy sector and has recently given its stamp of approval to two promising projects, Ibocs and Emodi.
Approved as a competitiveness cluster in 2005, S2E2 is a network of excellence, assembling energy sector professionals in three French regions: the Limousin, Centre, and Pays de la Loire. The cluster groups some 40 research and training bodies and 125 companies employing 31,200 people.
S2ES2 encourages synergies between its members and promotes their development through R&D projects and export marketing and communications. More than €350 million has been invested in research since the cluster was founded, supporting 360 projects, and yielding 60 patents.
Two innovative projects in the marine renewables
The marine renewable energy sector is a strategic priority for S2E2. Together with EMC2, it has given its stamp of approval to the Emodi (offshore Energy grid MOnitoring and Diagnosis) project led by the French national grid operator RTE (Réseau de transport d’éléctricité). The four-year research programme has been working on the optimization of high-voltage submarine cables using predictive and correctional maintenance techniques. This is a crucial market, with cabling representing 15% of the operating costs of an offshore energy farm.
The competitiveness cluster has also approved FMGC’s Iron Ballast project for Ocean Cable Solution (Ibocs). It is developing a semi-automatic solution for laying and maintaining such cables, as well as a range of cast iron cable casings which protect and weight submarine cables. The commercialization of prototypes in the range is already well under way, concrete evidence of S2E2?s strategy to “pass smoothly from the factory of projects to a product factory“.
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