French independent renewable energy producer Qair has signed a partnership agreement with business accelerator for marine renewable energy Bretagne Ocean Power to jointly contribute to the deployment of floating offshore wind, renewable hydrogen and tidal stream energy in the French region of Brittany.
The newly established partnership goes in line with Qair’s ambition to add 5GW of renewable energy capacity to its portfolio in the next five years that could be achieved through its multi-local and multi-technology strategy by further developing onshore and offshore wind, solar, tidal energy and hydrogen, the company said.
In this regard, Qair plans to promote the marine renewable energy know-how of the Brittany region by associating various such projects in the area as early as possible, while also connecting the clusters and organisations from the sector operating in the region.
Qair also aims to deepen the link between the Brittany universities concerned with marine renewables research, as well as the environmental organisations with the general public in order to increase the involvement of the citizens in the energy transition of their region.
More specifically, through the partnership with Bretagne Ocean Power, Qair plans to pool associated expertise from industry, scientific, and local environmental associations for each stage of future floating wind projects to ensure their successful delivery, while also involving all stakeholders in the process.
Following on from its Hyd’Occ project, a green hydrogen production plant located in the port area of Port-la Nouvelle expected to eventually produce 6,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year, Qair intends to use its know-how in this area as well to develop industrial projects for the production of renewable hydrogen for the benefit of the Brittany region.
Qair said it plans to build on and add to the regional roadmap by responding to future calls for projects, remaining committed to promoting an active link between floating offshore wind farms and the production of green hydrogen.
As for tidal energy, Qair already joined forces with the French designer and manufacturer of tidal turbines HydroQuest to create a project company FloWatt to develop the most powerful pilot farm in the world on the Raz-Blanchard concession, as reported earlier by Offshore Energy .
France has a potential of around 3.5GW of tidal power, with the Raz-Blanchard site alone able to possibly generate 3GW.
Qair committed to therefore use all its experience acquired through FloWatt to apply its expertise for the development of commercial tidal stream farms in Brittany.