HydroQuest

HydroQuest SAS is a French developer of vertical-axis turbines, generating electricity from river and tidal currents.

HydroQuest SAS

Industry	Renewable energy
Founded	2010; 15 years ago (2010) in Grenoble, France
Products	River turbines Tidal turbines

The company was founded in 2010, in Meylan, Grenoble, and is based in the Inovallée science park.^[1][2]

They have installed several small in-river turbines, in France and French Guiana. They also tested a 1 MW tidal stream turbine off the coast of Brittany from 2019 to 2021. HydroQuest and other partners are developing the 17.5 MW FloWatt project, comprising seven tidal stream turbines, expected to be built by 2027.

Device concept

A model of the HydroQuest tidal turbine to be used in their FloWatt project

The HydroQuest turbine is a double vertical-axis design, with counter-rotating blades inspired by Darrieus and Achard turbines.^[3]

The river turbine can be adapted for most rivers with a depth of greater than 2 metres (6.6 ft).^[4]

The tidal stream turbine design has two pairs of turbines stacked vertically on two parallel shafts. Each turbine has three blades, and the upper turbine is rotated 60° relative to the lower turbine, so the blades are offset to minimise loading.^[3] The first tidal turbine design had a lateral ducts either side and between the turbines, but this will removed in the next generation design to be used in the FloWatt project to reduce weight, loads and costs. The blades have also been redesigned to improve performance.^[5]

History

In 2013, HydroQuest installed a turbine in the Oyapock river in French Guiana, powering the 200 inhabitants of the Camopi village previously relying on a diesel generator.^[1][6]

The company also tested a 40 kW HydroQuest 1.40 in the Loire river in Orléans in late 2014, connecting it to the French electricity grid in September 2015.^[7] In 2016, it was reported to be the only operational grid-connected fluvial hydro-kinetic turbine in France, having operated for 2 years.^[4]

HydroQuest have been collaborating with IFREMER since 2015. In January 2024 launched the joint VERTI-Lab (vertical axis laboratory), to create specific analysis tools to support the development of vertical axis tidal stream turbines.^[8][9]

River Rhône turbines

In 2018, the HydroQuest-Hydrowatt Group installed four grid connected turbines in the river Rhône near Lyon. They were installed upstream of the Pont Raymond Poincaré near the Park de la Feyssine. Each turbine was rated at 80 kW, a total of 320 kW, and the project was expected to produce 1 GWh of electricity, or around the average annual consumption of 400 households.^[10] The turbines were built by Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) in Cherbourg. The farm was inaugurated on 21 December 2018.^[2]

A project to install a 2 MW project comprising 39 HydroQuest turbines, located downstream of the Génissiat Dam on the Rhône, was approved in 2017 by the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME).^[11] It was expected to be built in 2019,^[2] but the project appears to have stalled.

OceanQuest testing at Paimpol–Bréhat

A 1 MW OceanQuest turbine was tested at Paimpol–Bréhat between April 2019 and December 2021. It was again constructed by CMN in Cherbourg, and comprised four vertical axis turbines each with three blades, mounted in pairs on two shafts. Each rotor was 3.8 m high with a 4 m radius. These were mounted in a frame 9.8 m high and 24.7 m wide, which housed two permanent magnet generators at the top of each shaft. The device weighed 1500 tonnes, and sat on a tripod foundation. The power curve of the turbine was certified by Bureau Veritas against IEC TS-62600-200.^{[3][12][13][14]}

FloWatt project

In collaboration with CMN and renewable energy company Qair, Hydroquest are developing the FloWatt project. This will comprise seven HydroQuest turbine units, each rated at 2.5 MW, to be installed at Raz Blanchard, Normandy. The turbines will be again be constructed by CMN in Cherbourg. Each unit is 21 m tall, 26 m wide with a pair of three-bladed turbines mounted on a vertical shaft either side of a central structure.^[15]

The Windstaller Alliance, a joint venture between Norwegian companies Aker Solutions, DeepOcean and Solstad Offshore, was contracted to undertake a front-end engineering design for the subsea power systems of the FloWatt project.^[16]

The French Government is supporting the project with €65m funding and dedicated revenue support for the electricity generated.^[17] In September 2023, HydroQuest launched a crowdfunding campaign, seeking to raise a further €1.5m for the project.^[18]

In October 2024, it was announced that HydroQuest and Normandie Hydroliennes had been awarded €51m between them from the European Union's Innovation Fund to develop 29 MW of tidal stream capacity at Raz Blanchard. The project is now scheduled to be commissioned in 2027.^[19][20]