OpenHydro Group Ltd was an Irish developer of tidal stream turbines, established in 2004. It was acquired by Naval Energies (then DCNS) in 2013, however, Naval Energies decided in July 2018 to stop developing tidal turbines and focus on

floating wind turbine A floating wind turbine is an offshore wind turbine mounted on a floating structure that allows the turbine to generate electricity in water depths where fixed-foundation turbines are not economically feasible. Floating wind farms have the poten ...

s. The company subsequently went into liquidation with debts of about €280m. OpenHydro was based in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and had a manufacturing facility in

Greenore Greenore () is a village, townland and deep water port on Carlingford Lough in County Louth, Ireland. History A lighthouse was built on Greenore Point in 1830. Several decades later, the Dundalk and Greenore Railway Act 1863 authorised the ...

, Ireland. Naval Energies unveiled a new factory in

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (, ; Norman: ''Tchidbouo'') is a port city in the department of Manche, Normandy, northwestern France, established on 1 January 2016. Various iterations of the OpenHydro turbines were tested in Scotland, France, and Canada.

Testing at EMEC

The first 250 kW Open Hydro turbine was tested at the

European Marine Energy Centre The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd. is a UKAS accredited test and research centre focused on wave and tidal power development, based in the Orkney Islands off the mainland of Scotland. The centre provides developers with the opportun ...

(EMEC) Fall of Warness site from 2006, and was connected to the

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

electricity grid in May 2008. The seventh generation 6 m diameter Open Hydro turbine was installed at the same EMEC site in April 2014. The turbine on test at EMEC was mounted on two piles, allowing it to be raised out of the water for maintenance, as shown in the photo (right). However, subsequent turbines sat on the seabed on a gravity foundation. The test structure at EMEC was decommissioned and removed in the summer of 2024, with the piles cut off at the seabed by diamond wire cutting. Openhydro_Triskell_-_Tidal_Turbine_Deployment_Vessel_in_port_of_Cherbourg-7985

Openhydro_Triskell_-_Tidal_Turbine_Deployment_Vessel_in_port_of_Cherbourg-7985

Paimpol–Bréhat tidal farm

Électricité de France Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...

(EdF) started to develop a tidal farm at Paimpol–Bréhat, Brittany, France that would use OpenHydro turbines. A 250 kW turbine named ''L’Arcouest'' was tested there between December 2013 and April 2014. Two 16 m diameter 500 kW turbines were installed in January and May 2016, however these turbines were never connected to the grid. They were removed for repair in 2017 but not re-installed. The project was cancelled in 2018. The turbines were lowered to the seabed, and subsequently removed, by a specially designed

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

barge, the OpenHydro Triskell. The turbine sat between the hulls, partially in the water. CST Deployment July 2018

Cape Sharp Tidal

Cape Sharp Tidal was a joint venture of OpenHydro and

Emera Emera Incorporated is a publicly traded Canadian multinational energy holding company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Created in 1998 during the privatization of Nova Scotia Power, a provincial Crown corporation, Emera now invests in regulated ele ...

(the parent company of

Nova Scotia Power Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a vertical integration, vertically integrated electric utility in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB). Nov ...

) that tested OpenHydro turbines at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE). A 10 m diameter, 1 MW turbine was deployed in November 2009, however it suffered serious damage to the blades just 20 days later. A 2 MW grid-connected turbine was then tested from November 2016 to June 2017. In July 2018, a second 2 MW grid-connected turbine was installed. This turbine was left on the seabed when OpenHydro filed for bankruptcy, suggesting it was damaged beyond repair. The device was expected to be removed before the end of 2024 by the next company lined up to test at FORCE Berth D, BigMoon Canada Corp. In May 2024, Big Moon Power rebranded as Occurrent Power, however in September it also filed for insolvency. The Provence of Nova Scotia still holds a $4.5-million bond to retrieve the turbine.

Other projects

OpenHydro was about to develop the 14 MW Normandie Hydro project at La Raz Blanchard, Brittany, to be operated by

EDF Energies Nouvelles EDF Renewables (formerly ''EDF Renouvelables'') is a wholly owned subsidiary of the French utility EDF Group, specializing in renewable energy production. As an integrated operator, the Group develops and finances the construction of renewable e ...

. They were approved by the European Commission in July 2018 to receive funding from the French government. In April 2014, OpenHydro and Alderney Renewable Energy announced plans to develop a 300 MW tidal array off the coast of

Alderney Alderney ( ; ; ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependencies, Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-largest isla ...

in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

. The array was expected to have 150 turbines, rated at 2 MW each.

Notes

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References

Tidal power Tidal power in Ireland