DCNS submits plans for tidal turbine assembly facility in Normandy

French naval defence and energy group DCNS has submitted a permit application to build a facility on land owned by Associated Normandy Ports for the assembly of tidal power turbines.

DCNS said that the assembly plant will be constructed on a 25-hectare area in Cherbourg, Normandy. Initially, it will have the capacity to produce 25 turbines a year. An expansion that will double the annual production capacity is planned as well.

The new facility will first make turbines for the 14-MW Raz Blanchard pilot tidal power project off the Normandy coast. DCNS and EDF Energies Nouvelles SA won that scheme from the French government in early December 2014. They will install seven 2-MW turbines using the technology developed by DCNS’ Irish tidal energy unit OpenHydro Group Ltd. That tidal power facility is expected to be hooked to the grid in 2018.

Moreover, the Normandy plant will supply machines for commercial tidal farms in both Raz Blanchard and Alderney in the future.

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