The Ouessant tidal turbine purchased by Inyanga Marine Energy Group

Great uncertainty hovered over the future of the tidal turbine invented, designed and installed by the Sabella company in Fromveur, where it provides 15% to 30% of the electricity needs of the inhabitants of the island of Ouessant (29) since 2015. Named D10

the technology and steel juggernaut (400 t including 300 for the base) has just been bought by the French subsidiary of the British company Inyanga, as part of a judicial liquidation.

The head of Inyanga France, based in Rennes (and in a few weeks in Quimper), did not indicate the amount of the transaction, conducted under the authority of the judges of the Quimper commercial court. The cost necessary to disconnect and, above all, raise the tidal turbine is estimated at around one million euros. Inyanga’s expertise and activity relate precisely to this type of offshore operation. The British company has also managed all offshore operations at the D10 site since 2016.

New episode of life

Sabella was placed in compulsory liquidation on January 19, 2024, despite a reorganization and good functioning of the tidal turbine, designed as a demonstrator from its creation. A few months earlier, in December 2023, the Quimper company Entech had bought part of Sabella’s assets: it had, mainly, rehired all the staff, acquired protected technologies and the expertise of the underwater world provided by the Sabella teams.

Inyanga says today that it holds the Temporary Public Domain Authorization, necessary for the installation of the tidal turbine, and an operating authorization contracted with Enedis for the next four years.

Inyanga’s expertise

Founded and managed by Briton Richard Parkinson, Nyanga Marine Energy Group, headquartered near Falmouth (Cornwall), specializes in offshore operations and offshore engineering services. The company has around twenty employees, all subsidiaries in other countries combined.

Inyanga claims skills in “subsea and offshore engineering, offshore operations management, vessel selection and chartering, anchoring and installation analysis, digital simulations, heavy lifting, drilling, submarine cable management and risk analysis”. It is the owner of Tocardo tidal turbine technology.