Marine energies go forward despite the crisis

Various projects have been launched in Europe to develop tidal, wave and marine current power. Some countries have set objectives to reach by 2020: 2 GW for United-Kingdom, 0.8 GW for France, 0.6 GW at least for Spain, 0.5 GW for Ireland, and 0.5 GW for Denmark. Only actual operations in real conditions can determine the best technical choices in terms of reliability and costs, important financial helps have been set to develop prototypes and demonstrators. Important progress in computerized simulation allows a better prediction of the expected performance of the plant. Synergies between wind power industry and marine power industry have to be developed in terms of network connections, maintenance, the use of equipment... A European project called 'Marina platform' aims at designing polyvalent platforms for offshore wind field and for marine power plants. The company 'Tidal energy' has planned to immerse a pilot plant of 3 current turbines (totaling 1.2 MW) off the shores of Wales by the end of 2010. This equipment has been specially designed to minimize its impact on the sea environment. (A.C.)