Nénuphar CEO Charles Smadja confirmed the turbine project was proceeding. The process should take two months, with full operation expected in May.
Smadja is also confident that the planned offshore test site in the Mediterranean will be authorised this summer and expects the first offshore prototype to be installed in late 2015.
If all goes as planned, Vertiwind will be be the first floating turbine installed in French waters. A consortium led by defence and shipping firm DCNS had been expecting to launch a 1MW demonstrator of its Winflo floating platform this spring.
However, the project is now being "restructured", with an offshore prototype not expected until 2017 at the earliest. DCNS says it will announce further details "in the coming weeks."
