The race to commercialise wave energy is heating up in France.
Wave energy company Seabased is planning to build Europe’s first utility scale commercial wave energy park in Audierne Bay with the support of the Brittany region.
“The Region of Brittany is pleased to support this particularly innovative commercial project which will contribute to the production of competitive renewable energy along the coast of Brittany,” says Loïg Chesnais-Girard, president of the Regional Council of Brittany.
The planned wave power park will begin with a pilot 2MW and scale up to 10MW and will be connected to the French grid.
The company has completed two grid-connected wave power demonstration parks and is in the process of final system optimisation and 3rd party certification before full commercialisation.
How the technology works
Seabased’s wave power technology uses a buoy on the surface of the ocean that moves with the waves. This motion lifts a heavy, magnetized weight called a translator up and down inside the generator that rests on the sea floor. The generator – called a Wave Energy Converter, or WEC - converts this mechanical energy into electrical energy which it sends to Seabased’s unique electrical system, also located on the seabed. The electrical system converts the power from many generators to a single stream of grid-ready electricity.
The Seabased solution is highly modular. Standard 2MW building blocks can be used to build smaller or larger wave power parks.
Seabased already works with Brittany-based ENAG, a company that specializes in energy conversion. ENAG has built Seabased’s unique electrical system.
By Rebecca Jeffrey
