The result of a highly innovative idea in 2007, the SEM-REV has become an essential testing facility for MRE in France since its construction in 2015. Created by Centrale Nantes, it joins the OPEN-C Foundation in 2023. This 1st liaison committee meeting was an opportunity to present the site to local and institutional players, and to share with them the latest activities carried out offshore and onshore. The event will be repeated every year.
Why a liaison committee?
Offshore test sites for Marine Renewable Energies (MRE) are national, European and international test facilities with a strong local footprint. In fact, the Foundation’s 5 sites stretch from the English Channel to the Mediterranean. It is therefore essential to be in contact, to exchange and to inform local stakeholders of the activities carried out offshore and onshore. The OPEN-C Foundation organizes this annual event for all its sites. On September 20, it was SEM-REV’s turn, after the Paimpol-Bréhat sites in December 2023 and SEENEOH last May.
The 1st SEM-REV meeting
This first SEM-REV liaison committee brought together representatives of government departments, local authorities and their agencies, academic stakeholders, environmental and user associations, as well as industrial and economic players (competitiveness clusters).
With around forty participants, welcomed at the Mairie du Croisic, the OPEN-C Foundation teams were able to go back over the history of the test site for this 1st edition, and in particular to explain its entry into the OPEN-C Foundation. The OPEN-C Foundation will enable several of the world’s major innovations to become more reliable over the next few years, by operating all the sea trials sites in France, including SEM-REV.
The SEM-REV site manager then presented the site, its offshore and onshore infrastructures, and all the projects hosted since it became operational:
3 offshore energy recovery prototypes have been tested: BW Ideol‘s Floatgen floating wind turbine, the first offshore wind turbine in France, GEPS Techno‘s wave platform and LHYFE
Dozens of projects covering a wide range of topics, such as the characterization of meteorological and oceanographic data, the testing of technological building blocks, the monitoring and environmental characterization of the site and the impact of installed prototypes, equipment maintenance, and support for the training of rescue services at sea, for example…
A test site in full development
For the past 2 years, a major infrastructure investment program has been underway at offshore and onshore sites to increase the site’s grid injection capacity to 10MW. To this end, new submarine cables and connectors have been installed, enabling 3 prototypes to be connected simultaneously to the site’s connection hub, and work has been carried out with Enedis to adapt the Public Electricity Distribution Network. Further steps are underway, such as updating the onshore delivery station, located in the commune of Le Croisic.
Offshore, the site continues to host collaborative R&D projects, several of which are underway until at least 2027, with others soon to join them.
But also at the heart of its activity and its km2 at sea, SEM-REV will soon be welcoming a second floating wind turbine. The 5 MW wind turbine, which will be installed as part of the France Atlantique project, is being developed by the French engineering company EOLINK. This will make the SEM-REV site even more unique, as it will be the only European site to host 2 floating wind turbines of different technologies simultaneously, with Floatgen developed by BW Ideol due to remain on site until 2027.
