We are excited to announce the upcoming visit of the French delegation “Le Parlement de la Mer” from Occitania to the Netherlands on October 1, 2024. This event follows our successful trade mission to Occitania in 2022 and the innovation mission in 2023. Le Parlement de la Mer represents different stakeholders that are involved in the future of the Mediterranean, like fishery, tourism, municipalities, wind power organisations, ports etc.  

Offshore wind Occitania 

France considers the offshore energy sector as an important sector for European strategic autonomy, cooperation should aim at maintaining the value chain in Europe (also for new innovative “floating” technologies). France has the ambition to become a world leader in floating wind farms and the Occitania region is the area where most of the developments in this field are taking place. Two pre-commercial floating wind farms will be built in the next few years and the realisation of the first commercial project with a capacity of 250 megawatts should start in 2030. Port-la-Nouvelle, located southwest of Montpellier, is currently being developed as a dedicated port for the floating wind farms. 

Wind’OCC, the cluster organisation for wind energy in the Occitan region, is the catalyst for local offshore wind developments. This organisation is very open to European cooperation, witness the MoU signed between Holland Home of Wind Energy (HHWE) and Wind’OCC, in April 2022.

Focus

The main themes of the mission are: 

• Stakeholder management wind farms (e.g. fisheries, tourism); 
• Spatial planning; 
• Public acceptance; 
• Shared use of offshore wind farms (e.g. floating solar, ecology enhancement); and
• Strengthening private & public collaboration between France and the Netherlands.

Program 

The itinerary includes visits to Futureland, Haliade X, the pilot project of Touchwind at the Fieldlab Westvoorne and a visit to the TU Delft. There will be ample opportunities for networking, and discussing potential partnerships.

Agenda October 1, 2024
09:00 – 11:00 Visit to FutureLand: presentations from AD’OCC, RVO, Pondera and DeRijkeNoordzee
11:00 – 12:15 Visit to TouchWind test site
12:15 – 13:15 Networking lunch at FutureLand
14:00 – 17:00 Visit TU Delft: presentations and visit to ESP and Wind AI lab
17:00 – 18:00 Joint networking reception at the Echo Building

It’s possible to join either in the morning (09:00 – 13:15), including the networking lunch, the afternoon (14:00 – 18:00), including the networking reception, or the whole day. 

For whom? 

Anyone interested in the (floating) wind developments in Occitania, especially companies that have participated in the innovation mission to Occitania in 2023 are encouraged to participate. The mission is small-scale with a maximum of 25 participants. We will take in consideration how your expertise matches the focus and purpose of this mission. You will receive final confirmation of your participation after the closing of the application period. 

Participation costs 

Participation in the visit is free of charge.

More information & registration

If you are interested to attend the visiting program, please RSVP by selecting the correct ticket (morning, afternoon or whole day ticket).
In case of any questions, get in touch with us via events@hhwe.eu.

Organisation 

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) is organising this mission, in cooperation with Holland Home of Wind Energy (HHWE) and Netherlands Business Support Office (NBSO) in Nantes.