Nova Innovation and SABELLA are pleased to announce a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two leading tidal energy technology companies.
The collaboration will accelerate development of tidal energy sites for both Scottish and French companies, combining expertise to drive rapid scale up of installed capacity in the tidal energy sector in both the UK and France. The alliance will include co-operation across French and UK sites, driving down costs, catalysing opportunities for funding, and delivering economies of scale to tackle the climate emergency.
In November 2020, the European Commission published the European Offshore Strategy setting out the challenge of delivering marine energy capacity targets of 100MW by 2025, and 1GW by 2030. The move spurred talks between Nova Innovation and SABELLA on how to combine efforts to meet the targets, resulting in the signing of this transformational MoU.
Fanch Le Bris, CEO of SABELLA, said:
“We welcome this MoU between SABELLA and Nova Innovation, and we can already see significant benefits from our teams working together to build capacity for tidal energy across France and the UK and making tidal energy a commercial reality.”
Simon Forrest, CEO of Nova Innovation, added:
“We are delighted to formalise our cooperation with SABELLA on site development of projects in France and the UK. Following a similar evolution to the commercialisation of the wind sector, this MoU creates a pathway to accelerate delivery of larger, high-impact projects to take tidal energy mainstream.”
The move sends a strong positive signal to investors, the European Commission and stakeholders in the tidal energy sector.
Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy in the Scottish Government, said:
“Nova Innovation is a pioneer in tidal energy technology and the Scottish Government is proud to have played a supporting role in its achievements to date. I welcome this agreement between Nova and SABELLA and I look forward to it delivering further opportunities for both companies – along with the wider sector – to grow, develop and realise the potential that tidal energy has in our journey to net-zero.”
Nova Innovation and SABELLA will share information on site development, technical expertise, environmental data and their thriving networks to accelerate the time it takes to deploy projects and maximise cost efficiency of site development.
The French and Scottish companies combine extensive experience and shared values with an ambitious global roll-out strategy. This pan-European alliance will maintain and strengthen the strong relationships across the European tidal energy supply chain, helping to continue the successful cost reduction pathway of this clean, predictable form of renewable energy.
About Nova Innovation:
Nova Innovation (Nova) is a world-leading tidal energy company with a disruptive, proven technology with global potential. Founded in 2010, the company has offices in Scotland, Belgium, Ireland, Wales, and Canada.
In 2016, Nova successfully installed the world’s first offshore tidal array in Shetland, Scotland. The array has been powering homes, businesses and the Shetland grid for more than five years.
In 2018, Nova partnered with Tesla to deliver the world’s first flexible, dispatchable and baseload tidal power plant, a game-changing technology capable of complementing wind and solar power to displace baseload fossil fuel generation.
In 2020, Nova won contracts to install fifteen turbines in Canada. This ground-breaking project secures Nova’s first North American project and shows a clear route to market for Nova’s technology.
More information can be found at www.novainnovation.com
About SABELLA:
Founded in 2008, SABELLA is a French company developing an innovative tidal stream technology.
With two field-tested devices, including the first French grid-connected tidal turbine in 2015, and two pilot tidal arrays under development, the company is at the forefront of tidal energy development in France and Europe. SABELLA’s team has been accumulating experience since its creation in 2008, and now has extensive expertise in R&D and project management in the marine renewable energy sector, and a deep understanding of challenges faced by tidal energy developers to reduce the overall cost of LCOE.
In 2019, SABELLA secured the funding for an innovative pilot arrays in the Gulf of Morbihan, France, through the European Interreg project TIGER. The project is currently under development for a commissioning in 2022.
In 2021, SABELLA welcomed GE Renewable Energy among its shareholders, while taking over their tidal energy assets. In this way, SABELLA turns into GE Renewable Energy tidal activity’s successor and becomes the owner of a wide portfolio of concepts and technologies. These assets gather all the tidal energy concepts developed by GE Renewable Energy since 2003, including assets inherited through acquisitions (TGL, Rolls Royce and Alstom).
More information can be found at www.sabella.bzh
