Editorial

High time to market

SABELLA, widely recognised in France as the most advanced and promising player in the tidal turbine field, remains highly active and mobilised in the face of an opening world market, with the first projects awarded in Scotland (Pentland Firth and Inner Sound) for nearly one gigawatt power, and qualification projects in the mythical Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia, Canada).

Since mid-2009, France has shown a somewhat timid desire to see emerge a marine energy industry. With market conditions in France not yet sufficient to encourage project implementation, and to support emerging national technologies through a local market, these technologies must consider export markets as their primary “playing field”.

On this international market, the leaders (mainly the Anglo-Saxons) capitalise on the first full-scale demonstrations already conducted to qualify for these initial commercial projects. In the same way, SABELLA submits bids to foreign energy providers for pre-homologation projects.

It is therefore becoming crucial for France to qualify solutions to offer as soon as possible. This is how SABELLA plans to test its lead industrial series model “D10” by the end of 2011, to finally assert its competitive assets and enter the world stage just as the curtain rises.

SABELLA submitted a proposal in response to a call for projects by the ADEME in October 2009 to be eligible for the “Marine Energies Demonstration Fund”, up against major French groups replicating foreign technologies. Despite recent arbitration of the public budget and the dismantling of this fund, SABELLA expects to be notified very soon, and to be able to benefit from subsidisation enabling it to mobilise private investment so as to launch the much awaited development of “D10”.

Jean François DAVIAU - President of SABELLA SAS - 20/07/2010