Abstract
Vision and ambition
France Energies Marines is a research and innovation centre devoted to offshore wind energy with a recognised industrial, economic and societal impact in France and internationally. Its goal is to be the driving force behind a sector that creates value for local communities by:
- Consolidating reference standards and software to qualify wind resources and the operating conditions of future offshore wind farms and ensuring their technical and economic viability.
- Developing operational tools to ensure reliability and optimal design, and control operating and maintenance costs, at both turbine and farm level.
- Developing reference methods and tools to optimise the environmental and socio-economic integration of offshore wind farms.
Mission
Our mission at France Energies Marines is to resolve bottlenecks to the development of offshore wind energy through research and innovation. To do so, the Institute draws on cutting-edge R&D led by an 80-strong multidisciplinary team and one-of-a-kind infrastructures to propel innovation forward. It also brings together a broad network of academic experts and partners who work in close collaboration with its researchers.
Through its actions, France Energies Marines is helping France to become the leader in green hydrogen and renewable energies by 2030, one of the ten objectives set out by the French government as part of the France 2030 investment plan.
Activities
The Institute's activities are built on two cornerstones: a multidisciplinary team with invaluable expertise and high-level collaboration, and infrastructures, whether belonging to the Institute or to partner organisations, to carry out high added-value experimentation.
The R&D carried out by France Energies Marines takes the form of projects lasting between 18 and 42 months and long-term sector-focused programmes. The outputs are intended to be transferred to offshore wind sector stakeholders. This transfer currently takes the form of research and expertise services, operating licences, know-how transfer and participation in expert committees and networks.
Topics
Four complementary thematic programmes have been defined in our scientific and technical roadmap: site characterisation, systems design and monitoring, farm optimisation and environmental integration. The research and innovation led by the Institute across these four programmes focuses on the main issues—whether technological, environmental, economic or societal—related to the development of offshore wind energy.
Site characterisation
The purpose of this programme is to provide reliable data and tools to improve site selection and turbine design and to optimise offshore operations. The work conducted as part of this programme aims to minimise uncertainties over production estimates and design conditions, to develop systems for shortterm wind and wave forecasting, and to characterise the interactions between coastal morphodynamics and wind farms. It includes the effects of climate change and increasing farm density.
Systems design and monitoring
The aim of this programme is to provide industry players with realistic, robust solutions to improve the design of their systems and ensure their reliability and integrity throughout their operational lifetime. To do so, it is crucial to develop numerical and experimental tools to precisely characterise the mechanical and hydrodynamic behaviour of moorings, foundations and power cables. The representativeness of the numerical models for the systems deployed during the operational phase must also be improved, through digital twins and in-service monitoring. This can only be achieved through the use of in situ data.
Farm optimisation
A wind farm is by no means simply an aggregation of production units; rather it should be considered as a whole entity, whose architecture and operating phase can be optimised to obtain the best cost-performance compromise. With this as a backdrop, this programme aims to provide stakeholders in the sector with tools to help them strike this optimal technico-economic balance. Another key element in this programme consists in tackling grid integration challenges by considering potential innovative solutions such as floating substations or power-to-X.
Environmental integration
Setting up a wind farm is liable to trigger environmental impacts and lead to socio-economic repercussions. This programme focuses on certain key ecosystem compartments, such as birds, marine mammals and fish, while taking a holistic approach. The aim is to develop tools and methods to measure, qualify, analyse, and predict the impacts of offshore farms, with a view to also contributing to maritime spatial planning.