Following six months of preparation, French renewable energy developer GEPS Techno has installed its TEST-IT buoy in Douarnenez Bay, located on the Céladon offshore test site in France.
Powered by solar, wind, and wave energy, the autonomous platform is set to host the company’s research and development (R&D) programs, including the EGF (Energie Grands Fonds) project, carried out in collaboration with Subsea7 and co-financed by Bpifrance under the France 2030 initiative.
In addition to its own R&D, the platform will also be used by other companies to run qualification tests. According to GEPS Techno, the first two commercial test campaigns began as soon as the facility was installed.
GEPS Techno was founded in 2011 by three entrepreneurs from the shipbuilding and offshore sectors to provide hybrid systems that harness all available renewable energy resources at a given location to address the challenges of autonomy, intermittency, and uneven distribution of offshore resources.
In June, France-based Legendre Group started constructing the first full-scale demonstrator for the Dikwe project in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, in collaboration with GEPS Techno.