[SAINTE ANNE DU PORTZIC] Seaturns tests a wave converter prototype

From the outside, the prototype looks like a large cylinder swaying in the waves. But inside, it works a bit like a pendulum, driven by the movement of the water masses, which pushes the air through a turbine to produce electricity. Gabriel Canteins, project manager at Seaturns

After reduced-scale tests in several European wave tanks (Universities of Aalborg, Porto and Santander, Centrale Nantes), an initial 1:4 prototype was tested in Ifremer's test tank in Plouzané. It was then installed in early October at Ifremer's offshore test site in Sainte-Anne du Portzic, where future activities relating to marine renewable energies will be co-managed with the OPEN-C Foundation. For 10 months, Seaturns and Ifremer teams will be monitoring the prototype's behaviour to demonstrate its potential in real-life conditions.

After this initial offshore test phase, new deployment stages are being studied, including the validation of new 1:15 scale prototypes in a dock, at Centrale Nantes for example. A full-scale demonstrator (6 m in diameter and 15 m long) could then be deployed at another offshore test site. These tests are a first step towards the deployment of this new technology on a larger scale, in a multi-float configuration, which should lead to the marketing of very low-carbon electricity production units from 2025.

The prototype was designed as part of the IAS-WEC project, which won the French government's I-Nov innovation competition in July 2023, and is funded by the French government as part of France 2030 and by the European Union as part of the France Relance plan.

About Seaturns

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