[ad_1]
The French tidal stream industry experienced a setback on Thursday that could be fatal, with Naval Energies announcing the halt of its investments in the sector, only a month and a half after inaugurating its first plant.
The company explained that it had drawn the consequences of the lack of public support for these technologies, the cost of which was considered too high, while local elected representatives saw it as a promising sector of employment even though it was very late in France.
The tidal turbines, underwater turbines which transform the marine currents in electricity, arouse for many years the hope of a source of clean energy, without the visual nuisances caused by the wind turbines. France, half a day from Cherbourg, in the raz Blanchard, has the second most powerful marine current in the world off the Channel and many other "deposits" off its coasts.
specializing in marine renewable energies, owned 60% by Naval Group and 34% by the SPI fund of the public bank Bpifrance, said Thursday evening in a statement that it had "decided at its extraordinary board of directors of July 25 to end its investments in the field of tidal turbines ", citing a lack of prospects.
Naval Energies, a subsidiary of the French naval manufacturer Naval Group (formerly DCNS), inaugurated in mid-June, Cherbourg, the first French tidal turbine manufacturing plant, while the French government did not hide doubts about the future of technology
The construction of the plant, which represented an investment of 10 milli In July 2017, with only two firm orders for tidal turbines (in Japan and Canada), the 5,500 m2 site was idling with just a handful of employees. [19659002] Naval Energies, which has invested 250 million euros in the sector since 2008, was hoping for bids from the State to make its production tool profitable. They never arrived.
– Anger of the Elected –
Naval Energies referred to a "gap between the technological offer and the market demand" and denounced "the system of subsidies that does not provide aid direct to the manufacturers ", not allowing the industry to" finance alone "the development of this sector.
" The Agency for the environment and energy management (ADEME) (…) has planned only 100 to 150 MW installed by 2028, 50 turbines of 2 MW in ten years, "said the group.
Contacted by AFP, a spokesman said that Naval Energies was going "focus on its other two main activities: floating wind and thermal energy of the seas."
He added that a hundred employees, including a dozen in Cherbourg, were concerned by the shutdown tidal activity
This announcement aroused the anger of the elected Norman.
The Minister of the Environment "Nicolas Hulot has killed a sector for the future of marine renewable energies, but it is a shame for a minister who wants to be ecologist," accused Benoît Arrivé, Mayor of Cherbourg -en-Cotentin, in an interview with La Manche Libre, denouncing "a financial and non-industrial choice"
"The production costs of tidal turbines (…) appear very high, even in the long term and even compared to offshore wind, "said Minister Nicolas Hulot the day before, while requesting additional studies to ADEME.
Senator LR of the Channel, Philippe Bas, criticized" repeated delays, for several years and despite our regular reminders, in the transition to the commercial phase of calls for projects, essential to consolidate the "business plan" of the plant and allow it to win the international markets that are multiplying. He called the government "with the necessary start."
Other manufacturers are present on this sector, including the British company Atlantis, world number one.
"If the State does not launch in a short time 'tenders commercial, the entire sector (French) will stop, "warned at the inauguration of the plant Cherbourg, June 14, the president of Naval Energies, Laurent Schneider -Maunoury.
Source link
