Tidal Energy Project in France

Langce tidal power station locates in the outlet of Langce river near to Saint Mario of France pioneers in the leading tidal device in the world. The preliminary proposal was pointed out in the year of 1937 regarding the construction of the tidal power station. The French Government made the decision to build in 1952, but the actual construction started from January of 1961. The first set of equipment put into operation in 1966. The power station included 24 sets of reversible equipment with the installed capacity of 10MW. The capacity of the power station amounted to 240MW totally. Its turbine can be utilized to produce electricity while the water is flowing in or out, and to pump water and be functioned as penstock. Its flexibility in operation makes it possible to generate electricity in the floor tide and ebb tide even in lower water head in 1.5m. Due to the increment of pumping capacity, the output of the power station will be gradually increased. Now the annual generating capacity has amounted to 6´10⁸kWh. The average tidal loss is about 8.5m, but the max. reaches 13.5m. The area of reservoir is 90000m².

Bulb-type device performs very well, of which average utilization efficiency has been stably upgraded to 95% of the actual max. value. The average dates that the power station has been shutdown due to the trouble is less than 5 days. The cathode protective system of water gate and penstock in bulb-type device is performing effectively in anticorrosion of salt water. The platinum anode is adopted in this system, with the power consumption only of 10kW.

This project has a comparatively positive impact on the environment. The high way constructed above diversion dam shortens the route between Saint Mario and Dinard. During the summer, the heaviest passing can reach 500,000 vehicles per month. The project itself has attracted huge of travelers. Every year, more than 200,000 people tour to here. The diversion dam makes the river entrance effectively becoming manual control lake, which improve the condition for yacht driving, flood prevention and wave prevention.