Atlantis Resources signs collaborative agreement with INNOSEA

As part of the collaboration, Atlantis is currently preparing an industrial plan setting out its strategy to enter the potentially lucrative French market which, after the UK, enjoys access to the second largest tidal power resource in Europe. INNOSEA is also advising the company about the best way to assemble a France-based supply chain capable of handling the manufacture, assembly and distribution of the market-leading Atlantis AR1500 tidal turbines, as well as how best to manage activities related to the foundations and the associated transportation and logistics processes. In all, the locations that will be investigated for their supply chain creation potential include Brittany (Région Bretagne), Normandy (Région Normandie), Aquitaine (Région Aquitaine), Pays-de-la-Loire (Région Pays-de-la-Loire), Hauts-de-France (Région Hauts-de-France).

In helping with this task, the French firm will also rely on its proprietary ‘marine energy industrial capability directory,’ which contains detailed information relating to more than 350 organisations across the country possessing capabilities relevant to the burgeoning domestic marine energy industry – including civil engineering capacity, as well as experience in composite, steel or concrete fabrication, turbine assembly, testing and commissioning and component manufacture.

RAZ BLANCHARD PROJECT
According to Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive Officer at Atlantis Resources, the bold move into the French market was mainly prompted by the fact that the company wants to ‘take over the development of the Raz Blanchard project abandoned by Engie earlier this year.’

“We want to develop commercial scale projects, and Ségolène Royal’s recent announcement [which set out the French government’s plans to launch a new round of commercial tenders for tidal energy – with an eye on accommodating projects of 50-100MW across two deployment zones in Brittany and Normandy] makes France the most attractive place to develop tidal power anywhere in the world now,” says Cornelius.

As part of the new partnership, energy company INNOSEA will assume overall responsibility for designing the turbine foundations – as well as for providing consulting engineering services to Atlantis in its role as the lead project developer. As Cornelius explains, the initial Raz Blanchard 6MW project will be constructed using Atlantis – 1.7MW turbines located on a drilled mono-pylon foundation designed by INNOSEA.

In the coming years, Cornelius also reveals that Atlantis will be focusing its efforts on developing what he describes as ‘commercial scale projects’ in Normandy and Brittany – with each one expected to be ‘between 50 and 100MW in size.’

“If the tenders are called for this year, we will participate and hope to deliver commercial scale projects by 2020 or 2021 in France,” he adds.

By Andrew Williams