Physical meeting in Nantes

Interesting lab tour at Université Gustave Eiffel in Nantes, France.

Our team gathered in beautiful Nantes, France, for a highly productive in‑person meeting. The discussions were inspiring and helped drive the project forward in several important areas.

Cable Testing at UGE

At UGE, extensive bending and mechanical tests have been performed on the NKT cable. The goal is to understand how the cable behaves under stress and whether any internal components are affected. While the cable itself does not break, certain internal parts may experience strain under heavy loads.

Coating Work at Geico

At Geico, cable samples have been coated with Green Sailor paint inside the application chamber. These coated samples have now been shipped to CNR and RISE for deployment at sea. In the updated in‑situ process, cables will be washed, cleaned, and dried before a new layer of paint is applied.

Marine Exposure Tests at CNR Genoa

At CNR in Genoa, both flat panels and cables are undergoing exposure tests.

• One cable is deployed at sea with both ends connected to the DAS system developed by the University of Alcalá in collaboration with RISE. This system tracks how the cable moves underwater.

• Flat panels have been submerged since last year and now show significant biofouling.

• Cables are tested in triplets:

  • one uncoated,

  • one coated with Green Sailor paint,

  • one coated with paint containing Selektope from I‑Tech. These were deployed in April.

Material Integration at RISE

At RISE, work is underway to integrate Selektope from I‑Tech directly into the cable jacket. More details will be shared soon. Similar exposure tests to those at CNR will also be conducted off the west coast of Sweden.

Modelling and Simulation

Researchers at Chalmers are developing models to predict cable movement, while D‑Ice is running simulations.

Cleaning Robot Development

The prototype cleaning robot developed by KeelCrab has successfully completed pool testing. The next milestone will be real‑world testing at sea.

LCoE Analysis by WaveVenture

Finally, WaveVenture has begun work on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) analysis, using data collected from across the consortium.