Sabella, a French tidal energy company, plans to retrieve its D10 tidal turbine early in July, subject to metocean conditions.
The 1 MW turbine, with a rotor diameter of 10 m and height of 17 m, weighing around 450 tonnes, was deployed in June 2015, and connected to the Ushant island’s grid, France, last November.
The retrieval of the turbine will be made with the DP2 vessel Aker Wayfarer, equipped with two offshore cranes, from the Norway-based provider of vessel services Akofs Offshore.
The company has contracted Mojo Maritime, part of James Fisher and Sons, which specializes in project management, engineering and consultancy services for the marine renewable energy industry, to conduct the retrieval operation.
Jean-Christophe Allo , Business Development Manager for Sabella, said: “The retrieval is planned early July, subject to meteocean conditions. We will only retrieve the turbine. We will leave the gravity based foundation and the export cable in the Fromveur Strait. We will expertise the turbine after one full operational year in order to improve our engineering for upcoming projects. We plan to install it back next fall, after implementing few optimizations.”
Take a look at the video released by Sabella on D10 project, from beginning of the construction to the first energy supply to Ushant island.