SolarinBlue, a French company, has installed a demonstration floating solar unit to supply electricity to the port of Sète.
SolarinBlue launched the first floating photovoltaic solution units of the Sun’Sète project in the presence of regional Vice-Presidents. The demonstrator is installed in the commercial port, 1.5 km from the coast, on the site of a former offshore oil unloading station. According to the company, it will be completed in a few months by additional units, for a total installed power of 300 kWp.
France’s first photovoltaic port
The Sun’Sète project involves several successive stages, the first of which consists of the installation of two floating units and then the project will grow to 25 units in its final version for a total installed power of 300 kWp and a surface area of half a hectare. The estimated production will then be 400 MWh/year and will be transported by a submarine cable to supply renewable electricity to the infrastructures of the port of Sète.
Sun’Sète project
- Floating units
- Dimensions: L =12m, W = 9m, H = 5m
- Weight: 8 tonnes
- Marine galvanized steel structure
- Recycled HDPE float
- Photovoltaic capacity of 30kWp per unit
- Test site
- Distance of 5 km from the dyke
- Water depth of 15m
- Sandy seabed
- Anchoring
- Tensioned anchoring in synthetic lines
- Environmentally friendly helical anchors
- Redundancy of anchor lines
A sister project in Mangalore, India
In India, SolarinBlue Energy Pvt Ltd has already secured a permit for a 1 MWp solar farm from the Indian government based on its technology. The site is located near Mangalore, seventh largest port of India and located 10 km away from the shore, at 19m depth for a total surface area of 200m x 200m. Preliminary studies have been conducted in cooperation with iDecK and assembly of the first units could start before Q1 2024.
The Mangalore project would provide electricity to the MESCOM and help decarbonize electricity generation for more than 1,5GWh per year, the equivalent of the electricity consumption of more than 7,000 households.
