DesignPro Renewables hosted a launch & press conference on the 9th of November in Bordeaux, France to celebrate the deployment of our 25kW turbine at the SEENEOH test site as part of our EU funded Horizon 2020 SME Instrument project.
DesignPro Renewables’ 25kW device deployed at SEENEOH
Speaking to the newly appointed Irish Minster of Communications, Climate Action & Environment, Minister Richard Bruton about our project, he commented:
“Congratulations to DesignPro Renewables, who have worked in conjunction with GKinetic to achieve what is a very significant milestone for both companies and indeed a great accomplishment for the Irish renewable energy industry more broadly. The deployment and connection to the French grid of their 25kW hydrokinetic turbine at the SEENEOH test site is a tangible example of a company investing in the renewable energy vision and has the potential to make a real and positive difference to the global renewable energy community. This project and many others like it, have received support both at home, through the Prototype Development Fund, funded by my Department, and in Europe through the Horizon 2020 programme. Today’s event is a direct result of this work and I think everyone can be assured that their hard work is bearing fruit. Further work and collaboration will no doubt be needed, but I am pleased to see that the investment from both Ireland and Europe is now showing positive results.”
The event was held on the Croisières Burdigala II Boat on the River Garonne in the heart of Bordeaux. The agenda included a site visit, press conference and lunch & networking. Companies and government representatives from France and Ireland were in attendance including SEAI, ADEME, MaREI and Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
About the event, Arnaud Leroy, President of ADEME, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency stated:
“This event highlights once again the contribution of SEENEOH test site to the development of the tidal stream industry. This formidable tool, unique in Europe, is a good example of the region’s dynamism on marine renewable energies. I wish DesignPro Renewables great success for their technical trials.”
At the press conference, there were three speakers including, our Sales & Marketing Manager, Roisin Mc Cormack; Marc Lafosse President of Energie de la Lune and Anne-Laure Bedu, Regional Councillor of the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine. They all highlighted key points around the importance of progressing hydrokinetic technology further for the renewable energy industry.
“There are many elements that make a project like this successful for a developer such as ourselves. We not only look at the characteristics of the site also, and equally important the team, the support, the surrounding infrastructure, the access to the market the location provides. It is the combination of these things that make for a winning project and everyone who has made SEENEOH a reality should be very proud.” Roisin Mc Cormack, Sales & Marketing Manager of DesignPro Ltd.
“We are proud that we overcome the challenge for the build of Design Pro’s floating platform. We are ready to begin the testing on the technology to ensure the device is of the highest standard. We hope the success of this demonstration drives the tidal energy sector.” Marc Lafosse, President of Energie de la Lune
“From the very beginning, the Region has supported experimentation in this promising industry of tidal. Tidal energy could cover 3% of worldwide energy needs meaning 100 million of households. Back to the development of wind or solar, we have had an ambitious feed-in tariff politics and these renewable energies are now very competitive. Tidal deserves an ambitious support while we will demonstrate environment and energy go together.” Anne-Laure Bedu, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Overall the event was a huge success and we look forward to working with SEENEOH and their French partners on the testing of our device.
Managing Director of DesignPro, Paul Collins stated:
“We are incredibly proud to have accomplished this milestone in such a short period of time. This would not have been possible without the great support from the Test Site and our collaborations with companies such as Mitsubishi Electric. We have learned a great deal on this journey, enabling us to optimise our technology to the highest of standard. This was recognised last week when DesignPro won the Deloitte ‘Innovative Technology Award’ in association with Google. Building on this success we plan to expand our team further and grow our operations and manufacturing capabilities to ramp up for mass production.”
Next steps for the company include the design build and deployment of their larger, 60kW machine. In addition, the company are open to discussing opportunities for projects and partnerships following the completion of our Horizon 2020 project.