Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) (www.oceanenergy-europe.eu/en), the European industry association, has welcomed the French government’s plans to launch a tender for tidal energy projects later this year as another step towards the ‘mainstreaming’ of tidal energy.

Ségolène Royal, the Minister for Energy, announced at the end of last month that the French government will launch a new round of commercial tenders for tidal energy.

Two deployment zones capable of accommodating projects of 50-100MW are being identified by regional authorities in Brittany and Normandy.

OEE CEO Rémi Gruet said: “This is a positive development for the European tidal-power sector. Tidal technologies have taken off over the past few months, and developers now need areas where they can demonstrate arrays and full-scale farms.

“France has a world-leading tidal-energy supply chain, and these new tenders could leverage the experience recently gained in other parts of Europe to push tidal energy to commercialisation. They are an important step to mainstreaming tidal energy.”