Successful installation of the new offshore cables: SEM-REV 2.0 is now operational offshore!

Whole teams and exceptional marine vessels were mobilised day and night for this installation in several stages In April, over the course of three weeks of offshore operations:

> Inspection of the submarine hub with an ROV and divers to prepare for its raising
> Raising the hub to the boat deck and connection of the two new cables.
> The two cables and their connectors are laid on the seabed, awaiting connection to a demonstrator.
> The submarine hub is then refitted with all its cables.

Watch the video of these operations:

Images: © Centrale Nantes/Time To Production

These operations were carried out by teams from SEM-REV and Inyanga Tech, the submarine equipment supply contract holder responsible for carrying out the work. The cables were supplied by Prysmian and the connectors by ETA, and assembled in March 2023.

The offshore installation of cables and connectors on the submarine hub, the first of 3 operations that will enable the site to export up to 10MW to the grid, has therefore been successfully completed. The updating of the public high-voltage electricity distribution network by Enedis and the updating of the onshore delivery substation, located in the city of Le Croisic, will be completed in the coming months.

The SEM-REV test site is already hosting new offshore tests thanks to this work, with the arrival on site in June of the SeaLHYFE project to test the production of green hydrogen at sea connected to one of the new cables. Then it will be the turn of a second floating wind turbine with the France Atlantique project with EOLINK, for which the first stages of installation will begin this year.

This work to increase the site's grid injection capacity reflects the growing interest of a test site such as SEM-REV in research projects and the development of technologies linked to Renewable Marine Energies. The creation of the OPEN-C Foundation is part of the same dynamic, bringing together all the French offshore testing facilities for floating offshore wind, tidal, wave, offshore hydrogen and floating photovoltaics under a single organisation... In the very short term, the Foundation will operate the 5 French offshore test sites, including the SEM-REV created and developed by Centrale Nantes. The OPEN-C Foundation is a non-profit public-interest organisation which contributes to a more rapid energy transition and to enhancing France's position on these strategic issues.