Region of Pays de la Loire, has issued a Press Release, in line with its maritime ambition, on its recent visit to Edinburgh for Ocean Energy Europe 2018.
During Ocean Energy Europe 2018, Sebastien PILARD, Regional Councillor in charge of blue growth and international development, stressed: “Supporting companies from the Loire at international level and promoting our commitment to European projects such as CLIPPER, is a response to the challenges of blue growth. It is also one of the keys to the "Regional Maritime Ambition" strategy. Pays de la Loire Region, with its strong regional industrial expertise in the shipbuilding-MRE sector, strongly supports the structuring of the sector through research, innovation and training. Beyond regional economic development, the objective is to achieve national leader status, whilst promoting energy and ecological transition for all.”
The dynamism of ocean energies in Pays de la Loire
One year after hosting Ocean Energy Europe in Nantes (October 2017), the Region of Pays de la Loire Region is in Edinburgh for the 2 days of this year’s European Conference on Ocean Energy.
Marine energies include renewable energies at sea except wind turbines (floating or fixed), i.e.: wave energy, tidal turbine, tidal power, thermal energy of the seas and osmotic energy. They represent almost unlimited sources that remain largely untapped.
2018 is also a key date in the development of these new forms of energy, particularly wave energy, with the imminent launch of the IHES demonstrator of Geps Techno on the site of Centrale Nantes, SEM-REV.
The Region of Pays de la Loire is a leading state-of-the-art industrial and academic ecosystem in the marine energies sector:
- 1st French trial site at sea for marine renewable energies: SEM-REV;
- Number 1 French Region in terms of jobs in the MRE sector for the 2nd consecutive year (1,364 ETP declared in 2017, i.e. 51.2% of French jobs ;
- Over 1,000 researchers connected to these themes in 2018.
At the heart of blue growth, this expanding sector which brings together training, market opportunities, research and innovation, and markets in Pays de la Loire, is the pride of the Region.
Pays de la Loire stand at Ocean Energy Europe 2017
To encourage the industrial sector in its business development and support the local academic ecosystem, the Region of Pays de la Loire coordinates, in a joint stand on CLIPPER with Fife (Scotland), a framework for the promotion of regional strengths, with the presence of Loire flagships of tomorrow's energy and blue growth.
Co-exhibitors on the regional stand: 
GEPS Techno (www.geps-techno.com)
Engineering company which develops and designs innovative solutions for the recovery of marine energy, offshore energy autonomy and the stabilisation of floating structures. Their positive energy platforms and passive anti-roll stabilisers are already used by major maritime players.
Centrale Nantes, and SEM-REV, Multi-technologies test site at sea (www.ec-nantes.fr)
To meet the R&D needs of Marine Renewable Energies technologies that are currently under development, Centrale Nantes has developed a test site to test technologies in real conditions. This site makes it possible to address a major challenge for the development of an MRE industrial sector in France.
Weamec (www.weamec.fr )
Backed by Centrale Nantes and its main partners (University of Nantes, EMC2 cluster, IRT Jules Verne, with the support of the Pays de la Loire Region, ERDF, Nantes Métropole and CARENE) WEAMEC (West Atlantic Marine Energy Community) brings together the academic and industrial actors involved in the field of Marine Renewable Energies in Pays de la Loire, on the areas of research, innovation and training. WEAMEC brings together more than 25 institutes and laboratories, leading players such as Centrale Nantes, University of Nantes, IRT Jules Verne, CEA Tech, IFSTTAR and many others.
Neopolia MRE (www.emr.neopolia.fr)
Neopolia is a network whose mission is to unite companies and help them work together on business issues, for the development of industrial sectors. The MRE Business Cluster brings together more than 105 industrial companies that combine their know-how to innovatively meet the needs of the MRE market and offers 5 integrated solutions for MRE projects, engineering project development, EPCI floating or fixed foundations, support for installation at sea, operation and maintenance and system health monitoring.
Naval Energies (www.naval-energies.com)
Ocean energy flagship located in Pays de la Loire will also be present as a Gold Sponsor.
