Marine energies
Marine energies are yet another source of renewable energy. The Grenelle de la Mer stressed the need to quickly set up a proactive industrial policy in this field with a view to meeting France's goal: 23% of final energy consumption to be made up of renewable energy by 2020, with a 3% target contribution of marine energies.
IFP Energies nouvelles has taken up this challenge by focusing its research on floating wind turbines.
IPF Energies nouvelles draws on its expertise in the fields of drilling and offshore petroleum production. Expertise that will be leveraged as part of the research programs which is set to be launched from 2011 onwards includes design engineering, structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, physical chemistry of materials under stress and hydraulic optimization of rotating machinery.
A roadmap was drawn up back in 2010 for the coming years. The main scientific barriers to overcome are the storage of energy produced by wind farms and, in particular, electrochemical energy storage.
This research will be carried out in partnership with academic and industrial partners, with support from the Mer-Bretagne and PACA competitiveness clusters.
A national network is gradually being developed. The Ipanema initiative (French national partnership initiative to promote the emergence of marine energies) was created in 2008. Ancre (French National Alliance for Energy Research Coordination), created in 2009, paid special attention to marine energies in one of its working groups, in which IFP Energies nouvelles participates.
In 2009, it was decided that France énergies marines, an Excellence Institute in the field of low-carbon energies, led by Ifremer, would be created and located in Brest in 2011, the objective being to speed up technical progress in France.
Ocean renewable energies
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links list
Panorama 2012
"Sea and energy - What role can marine resources play in the energy mix?"
> Technical Reports available to download