Ocean Kinetics, Green Marine UK complete OpenHydro Decommissioning

Ocean Kinetics and Green Marine UK complete OpenHydro Decommissioning at EMEC. Image courtesy Colin Keldie

Ocean Kinetics and Green Marine completed the decommissioning of OpenHydro’s pioneering tidal energy platform at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.

A joint venture partnership was formed in April to deliver the decommissioning contract, combining Ocean Kinetics’ divers, riggers, welders and ROV services, and Green Marine’s offshore management, vessel, moorings and cable experience, with shared responsibility for operational engineering, cutting and heavy-lift operations.

Key work included dismantling the platform’s steel superstructure - including two 18-ton steel piles, drilled and grouted into the seabed – as well as cable disconnection and termination. Pile foundations were cut to the seabed using reversed Diamond Wire Cutters, returning the seabed as close as reasonably practicable to its original condition.

OpenHydro was the first developer to use EMEC’s tidal test site at the Fall of Warness and became the first tidal turbine to be grid-connected in Scotland and the first to successfully generate electricity to the national grid in the UK.