French wave energy company Seaturns has deployed its full-scale wave energy demonstrator off the French Atlantic coast, starting an offshore trial campaign that will run for a minimum of one year.
The deployment marks a key milestone on its path toward commercial deployment and technology certification by 2027.
The Seaturns S1 demonstrator has been installed 27.5 kilometers from the Port of Le Verdon near the Gironde estuary, marking a first such achievement in France and a significant step for the European wave energy sector.
The offshore trials will evaluate the floater's performance and reliability under real sea conditions, while collecting turbine output and operational data to support technology certification and future industrialization efforts.
An environmental impact monitoring program will run throughout the trial period.
Seaturns said the project is intended to validate the dynamic behavior of the floater, refine offshore operations and maintenance procedures, confirm the performance of the power take-off system and generate data required for certification.
The company expects the trial results to support certification by mid-2027 and contribute to the development of its first planned 2 MW pilot project in Mauritius, with a pathway toward a 10 MW commercial project.
The deployment follows more than a decade of research and development, including testing programs conducted at 1:30, 1:10 and 1:4 scale in collaboration with European universities and Ifremer.
As part of the program, Ireland's state-owned energy company ESB has entered into an industrial collaboration with Seaturns to monitor key stages of the deployment and offshore trials. Under the arrangement, ESB will have access to technical and performance data from the demonstrator.
According to Seaturns, the collaboration reflects growing interest in wave energy as a scalable renewable technology and could help support a planned fundraising round in early 2027.
Ireland has one of Europe's largest wave energy resources, and ESB has been monitoring wave energy technologies as part of its Net Zero by 2040 strategy.
Seaturns also unveiled plans to raise funds in early 2027 to support the progression of its technology toward commercialization, industrialization and future project development.