DCNS and Alstom have just announced a wide-ranging partnership with an important ambition: to offer complete solutions that contribute to the emergence of France’s floating wind turbine sector.
The partnership agreement between Alstom and DCNS is groundbreaking. “This agreement is the world’s first tie-up between a naval architect and an energy company with proven performance with high power wind turbines,” explains Thierry Kalanquin, the director of DCNS’s energy and marine infrastructure division. “It’s going to enable the establishment of a floating wind turbine sector in France, and that will create jobs“.
The origins of the alliance between the two industrial giants lies in the Sea Reed project, which was supported by €6 million subsidy from the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, the Ademe. The objective: to design a 6MW floating wind turbine, integrating a semi-submersible system built by DCNS and Alstom’s Haliade 150 turbine.
Commercial production by 2021
The floating wind turbine sector is growing. The technology enables the exploitation of deep waters where it would be impossible to site a fixed wind turbine. DCNS and Alstom are joining forces in order to be able to quickly offer a complete, innovative and competitive solution to this problem. The first pilot farms will become operational in 2017, with commercial scale production foreseeable by 2021, offering important prospects both in France and internationally.
Further information: DCNS press release
