Hydrokinetics. Sabella has been placed in compulsory liquidation. Will Ushant Demonstrator continue to supply the island?

Three months after being placed into receivership in October, the Sabella company has been placed into compulsory liquidation. The assets and 19 employees were taken over by Quimper’s partner company Antec, but not the D10 demonstrator that supplies electricity to the island of Occident.

It has been operational since April 2022 and distributes 250 kW of electricity, which corresponds to more than 75% of the electricity needs of the island of Ouessant. The submerged tidal turbine in Fromware, the first tidal turbine connected to the electricity network, can also reach 1MW of generating capacity.

However, the fate of this demonstrator named D10 has been compromised.

This Friday, January 19, the Quimper Court decided to place the Sabella company that operates the tidal turbines into compulsory liquidation, three months after the latter was placed in receivership.

Meanwhile, last December, Entec, a Quimper-based company specializing in building production systems, bought Sabella’s assets and hired 19 employees, but not the tidal turbines, which remain the property of the company in liquidation.

to read : tidal turbine. Sabella was placed in receivership

To date, the D10 demonstrator continues to operate and inject electricity into the island’s network, but when?

To read: In 2018, the demonstrator sank at a depth of 55 meters

On January 5, Benoit Bazire, chairman of the board of directors, explained to the Tribune: “Our project, called Blue Island, aims to find funding to continue injecting electricity to the island and replace the D10 demonstrator with turbines. With four one-megawatt turbines, we provide most of the electricity from Ushant”

With liquidation, it is no longer the search for financing, but the buyer that will need to keep the recruiting turbine going.

To read: Global Ambitions of Sabella Tidal Turbines

If no company comes forward, the tidal turbine must be taken out of the water and placed in dry dock. An operation whose cost is estimated between 800,000 and 1 million euros.

For the results for Oceanant Island, Mayor Dennis Pallul, contacted by telephone, was satisfied “I don’t know”.