French, Scottish Firms Team Up to Accelerate Marine Renewables Development

French company Open Ocean SAS and Orkney-based Aquatera Ltd. have 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 recent 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 will combine complementary strengths in resource and environmental assessment, but also in programme development and planning. Aquatera brings 14 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 brings a 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. Both companies have a similar ethos in relation to collaborative working. They consider it essential to support the development of the French supply chain who best know their market, marine energy conditions and potential.

France is an exciting target market considered by this new team of companies, as the French offshore market grows rapidly 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 also continue to explore other global markets and work together to support sector development in general.

Gareth Davies, MD of Aquatera Ltd. says: “Aquatera is delighted to cement this excellent collaboration with Open Ocean. We have been exploring opportunities in France for some time and it’s great to see this level of activity supported by the regional governments. It’s important to us to work with local providers to deliver the best possible services to take this industry forward.”

Jérôme Cuny, CEO of Open Ocean SAS adds: “We are extremely pleased with this agreement between Open Ocean and Aquatera which will allow us to jointly present a complete offer to the market in terms of marine energy project development. We believe that efficient and relevant collaborations such as this, strengthen the development of the marine energy sector overall. It gives the best supply chain provision to projects right from the outset.” 

Press release; Image: openocean