4. Rance tidal power plant

One example of a large-scale industrial project is the Rance tidal power plant (Ille-et-Vilaine, France). For over 40 years, this EDF facility has been producing the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of a city like Rennes. It accounts for 90% of the electricity produced in Brittany, and 3.5% of the electricity consumed in the region's four départements .

Apart from a few small abers in Brittany, France has two potential tidal sites in the Gulf of Saint-Malo: the Rance and the Chausey Islands. The Rance is a small estuary some twenty kilometers long that flows into the English Channel in the Gulf of Saint-Malo,...