A New Deployment Approach for Tidal and Wind Energy
HydreManche® is a patented foundation designed to support several renewable energy production modules on a single structure. Its principle is to move away from the logic of isolated machines, each with its own foundation and installation operations, towards a shared common support designed at farm scale.
This approach is designed to reduce installation complexity, limit heavy operations, minimise recurring interventions at sea or on site, and lower the associated costs throughout the entire life cycle. It is primarily aimed at tidal energy, but can also be adapted to bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind.
HydreManche®’s innovation goes beyond simply supporting machines: it rethinks how they are deployed, operated and decommissioned. In other words, it acts on the infrastructure itself to improve the overall economics of the farm.
HydreManche® replaces the one-foundation-per-machine approach with a shared structure designed at farm scale, enabling several modules to be grouped on a single base.
This approach is designed to reduce the technical and economic constraints associated with installation, operation and decommissioning, together with the costs they generate.
The concept can be applied to tidal energy, bottom-fixed offshore wind and floating offshore wind, following the same infrastructure logic designed at the scale of an integrated system.
HydreManche® is supported by several patent filings relating to its tidal and wind energy variants. A dedicated page provides the relevant details.
A protected and documented Innovation
HydreManche® is supported by several patent filings relating to its tidal and wind energy variants. Full details of the titles and references are available on the dedicated page linked above.
Towards a More Structured Operating Framework
In its offshore configurations, the HydreManche® foundation offers an approach designed to reduce costs, limit recurring operations and mitigate certain technical risks associated with the operation of a renewable energy module farm.
Over time, this approach may help foster:
- more harmonised operating practices,
- clearer technical standards and reference frameworks,
- as well as a more structured dialogue with operators, investors, insurers and, where appropriate, the relevant authorities.