Akuo, DCNS, Entrepose Sign NAUTILUS Contract

Akuo Energy, DCNS and Entrepose (VINCI Construction) have signed a partnership agreement regarding an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plant project on the island of Martinique, a project called NAUTILUS.

Akuo Energy will entrust the design and construction of this plant to DCNS and Entrepose.

Manuel Valls stated: “The NAUTILUS onshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion project can help expand the showcase of French know-how (…). That is why I want the government to assess the financing that is necessary for this job-creating project. The costs and benefits need to be accurately appraised in order to define under what conditions it could be incorporated within Martinique’s next multiannual energy program.”

This low-power onshore OTEC plant will make it possible to combine air-conditioning, freshwater production and aquaculture solutions with electricity production by using deep-sea cold water. The NAUTILUS project will complement the NEMO offshore OTEC plant project that Akuo Energy and DCNS have already planned to install off the coast of this Caribbean island. It should help Martinique become energy self-sufficient.

Eric Scotto, Chairman of Akuo Energy, commented: “Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion has very substantial potential. This is clean, renewable and continuous energy. Looking at the intertropical convergence zone alone, it could cover the electricity requirements of 600 million inhabitants. We are very pleased to be collaborating with DCNS and Entrepose in this final stage of the validation of a technology that is already mature.”

Hervé Guillou, Chairman and CEO of DCNS, said: “The NAUTILUS and NEMO projects that we are going to carry out together in Martinique will enable us to assess the two OTEC technologies that DCNS has developed and that could eventually benefit all maritime tropical regions that are not connected to continental electricity networks. This is also an opportunity for France to prepare for the upramping of the expertise of its various industrial players and develop a sector of excellence that can be exported.”

Benoit Lecinq, CEO of the Entrepose group, added: “Alongside Akuo Energy and DCNS, the Entrepose group is proud to be able to contribute to the development of this onshore OTEC by providing its know-how in the execution of energy and hydraulic infrastructure projects, and notably its experience in laying pipelines and installing water intakes at great depths.”

Thanks to their complementary areas of expertise, Akuo Energy, the developer of renewable maritime energy projects, DCNS, which will supply the technology, and the Entrepose group, in charge of the engineering and execution of the maritime work, will have control over the fields of expertise necessary for the emergence of a French sector of excellence in OTEC.

Press release; Image: akuoenergy