DCNS targets €1 billion from turbine sales

 
DCNS, a French company that specializes in naval defence and energy, is looking to raise €1 billion from tidal turbine technology sales in the next 10 years, Reuters reports.

As the tidal energy sector slowly transitions to the commercial phase, with the installation of the first full-scale demonstration projects, and the expected CAGR growth of 23.2% from 2016 to 2024, the companies active in the sector are looking to seize the opportunities the growing industry is offering.

One such company is DCNS, which recently completed the installation of the 1 MW Paimpol-Bréhat tidal energy array off the north coast of France, with its project partner EDF.

The turbines used for the project were designed by an Ireland-based OpenHydro, a DCNS-owned tidal turbine manufacturer.

Aside from providing the turbines for the Paimpol-Bréhat array, OpenHydro’s turbines will be used for another tidal array project developed across the Atlantic by Cape Sharp Tidal in Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy. The 4 MW tidal array is expected to be installed and grid-connected this summer.

Although the revenue from tidal turbine business is currently close to zero, DCNS anticipates the sale of the turbines to rise in 2017-18 for pilot projects, and from 2020 onwards for the commercial tidal turbine arrays, according to Reuters.

“We have reached a turning point in tidal turbines, we are entering the pre-industrial phase. We hope to get one billion euros in sales in tidal turbines in ten years,” Thierry Kalanquin, DCNS Head of Energy and Marine Infrastructures, told Reuters.

The company has also announced plans to construct tidal turbines assembly plant in Cherbourg, Normandy, that would initially be used for the production of OpenHydro’s tidal turbines for the Raz Blanchard pilot tidal farm DCNS is developing with EDF. The project, due for completion in 2018, will see the installation of 7 OpenHydro turbines with a total capacity of 14 MW.

DCNS said the workshop facility would have a production capacity of 25 turbines a year, with the planned expansion expected to bring the production up to 50 turbines per year.

According to the latest report from Transparency Market Research, the value of the global tidal and wave energy market will reach $11.3 billion in 2024.