Page 56 - Impiantistica Italiana

currents to drive their rotation. These currents, overall power producing system, together with the
which are a result of the tides, have the characte- needed infrastructure, in order to exploit these un-
ristic of being predictable and are particularly po- conventional sources of energy.
werful on certain sites. For floating wind turbines,
we have positioned ourselves as a sub-system How far from commercial adoption are the
engineering leader and first-tier partner of turbine tidal energy conversion plants?
producers. Last but not least, the Ocean Thermal Our most advanced initiative is based on the tidal
Energy Conversion is a non-intermittent energy turbine. Today, Naval Energies occupies a leading
source that could represent medium-term green position on this emerging market. With the invol-
alternative, particularly adapted for tropical mari- vement of OpenHydro, Naval Energies has deve-
time regions that are not connected to the conti- loped one of the most innovative marine turbine
nental networks. We have positioned ourselves as on the market. OpenHydro’s technology, which
both a system engineering leader and sub-system has been under test since 2006 successively at
engineering leader. EMEC (Europe Marine Energy Centre) in Scot-
Our company is a complete EPCI (Engineering, land, in France at Paimpol-Bréhat and in Cana-
Procurement, Construction and Installation) and da, is mature and the Group leads the race, both
technology provider. We design and manufac- technologically and commercially. In the area of
ture the systems or subsystems and after their tidal turbines, Naval Energies positions itself as a
start-up we provide operations and maintenance system engineering leader, a supplier of “plug and
services, as well as the connection to the grid. In play” solutions.
this way, we are the natural partner to perhaps Today, we are focused on the success of our de-
a larger “Main Contractor” who could develop an monstration projects in Canada and Japan, and
are preparing the ramping up of the Normandie
Hydro project in the Raz Blanchard. The sum of
these projects will allow us to validate both our
technology and our economic model.

Could you tell us where are your commercial
ambitions for the OTEC?
We are currently working on improving the heat
exchanger technology. Desalination could be a
co-product. We believe that the technology is
sufficiently advanced to allow us to issue binding
technical and commercial proposals. This techno-
logy could find applications in equatorial markets
world-wide, not in the northern seas, where it is
too cold. A point in favor is that its output is not
unpredictable, as is the case with wind or of solar
energy, but relatively constant over time.
We will focus our efforts on the finalization of the
design of our thermal exchangers (central electri-
city production system). However, these are de-
pendent on a veritable public support on the one
hand and technology developments for the deep
water pipe on the other hand.

Wind offshore is a growing reality today in
the North Sea. How do you see the future?
With great optimism, since wind offshore applica-
tions are fully competitive economically and ba-
sed on well proven technologies.
As an alternative to fixed systems, which need
the ocean floor at acceptable depths to rest on,
we are developing a ‘floating’ solution: a demo
project is being prepared close to the Groix and
Belle-Ile islands in France. All this is still at a rela-
tively early stage, but the fundamentals and the
market prospects are certainly there.

What are the main challenges?
First, Naval Energies must transition from the min-

54 Impiantistica Italiana - Marzo - Aprile 2018