Way back in the 1960s France’s State-owned Electricite de France (EDF) built the world’s first tidal energy power plant on the Rance River. The plant, known as La Rance, is capable of producing 240MW of electricity but it has fallen out of favour because the barrage system is damaging the environment.

For this reason a new technology is under consideration by EDF to power a prototype project that will produce between 4 to 6MW at a cost of between €23 million to €27 million. The turbines are hoped to be in place off the coast of Paimpol in Brittany by 2011. It’s in these waters that the strongest currents in Europe are found.

The pilot scheme will enable the chosen technology to be tested in real conditio0ns which will allow a realistic assessment of the profitability of a future commercial scale venture.