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Interview of Philippe JEAN – Engineering Manager of Ocergy
Ocergy was created at the end of 2019 by Dominique Roddier, Alexia Aubault and Christian Cermelli. The three of them used to work for a pioneer American company in the sector of floating offshore wind. They are the first to have conceived, manufactured and tested a massive sea wind turbine structure. Thereafter, they have developed Ocergy with a branch located near San Francisco in the United States, as well as a branch located in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Ocergy is specialized in the development of massive offshore systems. It includes the implementation of floating wind solutions, environmental monitoring or aquaculture systems. To this end, the company develops complex and innovative buoys serving the ocean.
Ocergy has recently unveiled an unprecedented project: the OCG-Data buoy. This autonomous structure is responding to complex technical and energetic issues. It was implanted at the beginning of 2023 a few kilometres offshore of Leucate in France. It fulfils several missions such as:
The measurement of the biodiversity evolution and other environmental factors carried out by the buoy aims to provide an initial state about its environment. Then, the goal is to determinate if the concerned site is appropriate for the implantation of offshore wind farms. Upstream work is used to establish how to best cooperate with the local biodiversity. The objective is to improve the acceptability of offshore wind energy by predicting properly its impact.
Philipe JEAN
Engineering Manager of Ocergy
Besides the development of wind farms, the current demonstrator project aims to attest of this buoy’s purpose regarding the missions it fulfils. The goal is also to attract the attention of project developers and to consider using the data collected to sell them or rent this type of buoy. Then, Ocergy does not exclude to extend its scope of action to other places in France and around the world with a protection objective towards marine areas in the Pacific, Atlantic and exclusive economic zones.
Ocergy was looking for the most suitable autonomous energy solution regarding the project and its constraints in order to power the OCG-Data several kilometres away from the coast. Indeed, many factors needed to be considered such as the distance with the land representing an obstacle concerning the energy system’s maintenance. The marine environment as well as the saline air were also elements to think about.
Ocergy is now collaborating with TYVA Energie partially thanks to its contact with the company ALSEAMAR and its interest in the MURENE project. This project involves the creation of a subsea vehicle powered with our Moduloo Ax lithium batteries. Indeed, it is what convinced Ocergy since they were able to witness the performance of TYVA Energie’s lithium batteries inside a restricted and underwater environment. Thus, we have brought a concrete solution facing the concerns expressed regarding our products’ sealing, as well as the lack of gas emission and explosion risks. In the first instance, Ocergy has chosen lithium batteries over hydrogen and lead batteries to power its buoy because of these risks they can now avoid.
TYVA Energie has developed a custom lithium battery for Ocergy just as the work done with ALSEAMAR. Indeed, we had to conceive a unique and massive energy system in order to supply this gigantic structure. It weighs 46 tons and it measures 15 meters high and 30 meters of span.
TYVA Energie’s Engineers began this project from the Moduloo Ax lithium battery technology known for its high energy capacity. Thus, they have developed 3 batteries, each of them made up of 7 energy modules as well as their own BMS (battery management system) and PDU (electronical protection system). These batteries represent 3 energy storage systems independent of one another. Each of them is powered by a wind and solar generator located in a pillar of the structure. The batteries are located in a fourth pillar used to store it, but also to stabilize the whole buoy by connecting all pillars together in a central point.
TYVA Energie’s lithium batteries inside Ocergy’s buoy are able to bring an important amount of power and to turn OCG-Data into a completely autonomous and self-contained system. Thanks to the batteries and their energy modules, the whole system can reach a 32.6 kWh embedded energy.
Since it was set up in the Mediterranean Sea in January 2023, the OCG-Data buoy has successfully fulfilled the missions assigned to it. Only one noticeable BMS breakdown was reported after a year of activity. It has required the intervention of an engineer from TYVA Energie alongside with Ocergy’s teams who were satisfied with this reparation. No other incidents have been recorded, which testifies the quality of TYVA Energie’s lithium batteries associated to the complex system developed by Ocergy’s Engineers.
Moreover, Ocergy’s team have benefited from a personalized support with a step by step follow-up of the project as well as a knowledge sharing regarding lithium batteries. This support was reinforced once more during the assembly of the energy system inside the buoy. Indeed, TYVA Energie’s Project Manager has helped Ocergy’s team to connect the lithium batteries inside the buoy. The success of such a project could not be possible without the many exchanges prior to the OCG-Data buoy inauguration.
Thanks to the success of this demonstrator project, Ocergy keeps trusting TYVA Energie to develop new OCG-Data buoys. It involves the development of new custom lithium batteries in the next few months and years. Ocergy’s objective is to create a dozen buoys in the next 5 years.
A project you want to discuss about? Need more information? Want to know more about our sustainable and modular lithium batteries solutions?
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