Country Reports
FRANCE
Yann-Hervé De Roeck
France Energies Marine
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Call for projects: Marine Renewable Energies Institute for the Energy Transition 2015-2018
An additional year was awarded to France Energies Marines, in its initial cooperation with the National Research Agency, in order to support collaborative ocean energy R&D projects. Following is a listing of selected projects running in 2018, producing data, software and publications:
- DiME - dimensioning and met ocean: modelling and observations of extreme sea states for ocean energy (see picture below);
- TIMOTHE, HYD2M - wave and bottom friction induced turbulence and assessment of sediment and PHYSIC transport in the Alderney Race;
- ABIOP+ - accounting for biofouling through established protocols of quantification;
- MHM-EMR - in service health monitoring of ocean energy moorings to anticipate failures;
- STHYF - seafloor cable stability and hydrodynamics in strong tidal currents;
- SPECIES - submarine power cable interactions with environment;
- COMEEET - national panel of experts offering recommendations on environmental and socio-economic issues related to ocean energy;
- VALARRAY - optimization software benchmark for tidal & floating offshore wind arrays;
- ANODE - quantitative assessment of the metal inputs in the marine environment from galvanic anodes used for ocean energy systems.
DIME project: long-term observatory of extreme waves, using stereoscopy on a lighthouse in the Iroise Sea in order to reduce uncertainties in the calculation of wave-induced stresses.
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Call for projects: WEAMEC in the Pays de la Loire Region
Since 2016, this programme has cumulated €5,5 million awarded to projects dedicated to local academic teams in conjunction with industrial stakeholders. Around 10 projects were launched in 2018, covering a broad range of subjects (ECOSFARM: tidal control, DYNA: advanced geotechnics, CEAUCOMP: composite ageing in the marine environment).
Easing access to test sites and tanks: Foresea, Marinet2, THeoRem and Marinerg-i
Ifremer, ECN and Oceanides are involved in the Marinet2 project (http://www.marinet2.eu/), offering possibilities for technology developers to test their devices in recognized research facilities, including real sea test conditions. The 2nd call for projects of the Marinet2 European Transnational Access Programme was opened on 15 January 2018 – the selection procedure ended on 18 April 2018: 55 eligible proposals were received. Among these, 34 were granted access to one of the 57 available Research Infrastructures. The 3rd call was opened on 1 November 2018 and closed on 15 December 2018.
Related to this topic, information concerning THeoRem, a National Research Infrastructure related to hydrodynamic testing facilities, which Ifremer and ECN (Ecole Centrale de Nantes) have joined forces to create, can now be found on the research infrastructure website: www.theorem-infrastructure.org.
Furthermore, Marinerg-I (http://www.marinerg-i.eu/), a project devoted to federating in a single European Infrastructure several test sites and tanks, entered the development phase with the elaboration of a shared science plan and a design study. Each country involved agrees on an action plan to deliver necessary commitment letters by April 2019.
