*2.2. Automated Installation and Maintenance Maneuvers for First Generation TECs*

Section 2.1 shows that the manual installation and the maintenance maneuvers are both very complex and very costly. Moreover, the zones in which tidal energy technologies operate economically are zones with peak tidal velocities greater than 2.5 m/s [40,41] and are also characterized by the fact that they are zones with adverse climatologic conditions that increase the complexity of these maneuvers [42]. The development of automated installation and maintenance maneuvers, which help to reduce the resources required, the complexity of the operations and the costs are, therefore, a very interesting point to research. We define the term *automated* for TEC installation and maintenance maneuvers in a closed loop. These sorts of maneuvers have recently been presented by the GIT-ERM research group through several recent patents [43–45] as a solution that will influence tidal energy systems in the following particular aspects [22,23]: (a) the number and duration of the installation operations will be reduced; (b) the profitability of the project will be increased; (c) there will be less human intervention; (d) the weather window will be maximized, and (e) it may be possible to employ general-purpose ships as tugboats for maintenance purposes, rather than high-cost specialist vessels. In the following subsections, we provide details on the modifications developed by the GIT-ERM research group and made to the TEC proposed in Figure 3 in order to perform automated immersion and emersion maneuvers, along with the definition of the procedures employed to install and maintain these advanced systems.
