The Rance Tidal Power Station, Brittany – The French at their most pioneering!

The Rance Tidal Power Station in Brittany was built in 1966 and was the first power station of its kind ever to be constructed in the world. Even today it is the second biggest tidal power station worldwide.

Situated in the estuary of the River Rance between the towns of St. Malo and Dinard, the power station has a road running over the top of it, thus making it an extremely clever dual purpose construction, which on the one hand supplies electricity and on the other, allows vehicles to travel over the river.

The annual amount of electricity generated by the power station is about 540 GWh, which currently provides approximately 0.012% of France’s power needs.

Of course back in the sixties society did not demand anything like the amount of power which we believe we have to use today, so the percentage of France’s electric generated from the Rance Tidal Power Station would have been a much higher figure back in 1967.

The French employed the services of Albert Caquot, who was one of France’s most talented engineers, to oversee the project. The trick was to hold back the tide and river whilst the station was built. This Caquot achieved by building a couple of dams across the river.

The ground-breaking power station took a total of three years to build and was connected to the French national grid in 1967. Although the cost to build the station was extremely high and it took the next twenty years for the tidal power plant to generate enough electricity to have eventually paid for itself.

The Rance Tidal Power Station has become a major tourist attraction in it’s own right, attracting more than 40,000 visitors per year. Although despite the plant giving this region of Brittany a major boost in tourism, it has not been without its criticisms.

The biggest concern of the power station is that the ecosystem of the Rance estuary has been negatively affected and the sand eel and plaice have virtually disappeared. Although by contrast, both sea bass and cuttlefish have returned to the river in recent years.

If you find yourself around the pleasant and interesting towns of Dinard or St Malo, you must stop and admire the work of Albert Caquot and remember that the French were the first in the world to build a tidal power station.