French tidal energy developer Sabella has decided to postpone the redeployment of its D10 tidal turbine off France to conduct more tests.
The 1MW tidal turbine has been undergoing maintenance works at the Port of Brest since its retrieval in July last year, after having been submerged for one year off Ushant island.
The turbine was planned to be redeployed this May, as revealed earlier by Sabella, but the company decided to postpone the redeployment operation to conduct more tests.
Jean-Christophe Allo , Project Manager at Sabella, said: “We decided to pursue onshore commissioning tests to be sure that the turbine will be able to work continuously for 3 years with onshore storage system. Considering minor failures of other projects worldwide, we want to be as cautious as possible.”
Allo added the turbine was still up for redeployment this year, but no exact dates have been revealed.
Sabella’s D10 turbine, with a rotor diameter of 10 meters and height of 17 meters, weighing around 450 tones, was first deployed in June 2015. In November the same year the turbine was connected to the Ushant island’s power grid.