Northern France

Aquatera has been actively exploring the French market for the past few years and is currently working on joint projects in the regions of Brest, Cherbourg and West Normandy.

In 2014, French company, Open Ocean SAS and Aquatera committed to working together to support the acceleration of marine renewable energy developments in France. Jérôme Cuny (CEO, Open Ocean) and Gareth Davies (MD, Aquatera) signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This strong alliance provides a robust offer to the French market with a package of quality services, high level expertise and a proven track record in marine energy project development and consultation.

The MoU will facilitate further cooperation in the field of marine renewable energy, as the two companies combine complementary strengths in resource and environmental assessment, and also in programme development and planning. Aquatera brings 15 years’ experience to the partnership and hopes to export its expertise to enable developments in France, as it has done in the Scottish marine energy sector, as well as other countries across the world such as Chile, USA, Japan etc. The highly regarded team at Open Ocean bring strong experience in marine energy resource assessment and site characterization on both sides of the Channel and a wealth of local knowledge and existing relationships for the French market.

France is an exciting target market for this new team of companies, as the French offshore market shows rapid growth, with six offshore wind development licenses awarded and four pilot tidal farm sites to be awarded before the end of the year. Aquatera and Open Ocean will continue to explore other global markets and work together to support sector development in general.