Floating wind turbines SEM-REV
The SemRev marine experimentation site has been given the green light to test floating wind turbines. An important step for the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, the chief contractor for the site, which reinforces its expertise in technological innovation in the marine renewables sector.
It’s official. On the 17 January, the École Centrale de Nantes received the prefectoral order giving it permission to commence tests on floating wind turbines at the SemRev marine experimentation site.Thispermitwillallowthe elite school to maintain a wide range of toolstosupport its industrial partnersthrough every stage inturbinedevelopment, from designthrough toprototype testing.
Since 2012, numerous players in the sector have been attracted to the project. Forthcoming challenges for the developers and researchers at the site include the laying of a submarine cable in 2014, in anticipation of the first production system’s arrival in 2015.
Developed by the LHEEA*, SemRev has proved its worth as major facility for testing marine renewable technologiesunder real world conditions.The data obtained will be analysed in numerous research studies, notably at the Jules Verne Institute of Research and Technology,and should prove arealasset for honing tools and processes in industrial design,beforethe first floating wind turbinearrives mid-2015.
* Laboratoire CNRS d’hydrodynamique, d’énergétique et d’environnement atmosphérique (The CNRS Laboratory for hydrodynamics, energy, and the atmosphere. The CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientific) is France’s principal research funding body).
Further information: www.semrev.fr
