Scottish marine energy firm Simec Atlantis Energy has fully decommissioned its SeaGen tidal turbine support structure in the Strangford Narrows, Northern Ireland.
This is the first commercial scale tidal turbine development to be fully decommissioned.
UK firm Keynvor MorLift carried out the decommissioning engineering, planning and offshore works.
The final major lift operations included the rigging, cutting and lifting of the 500 tonne structure.
SeaGen was installed in 2008 when it became the world’s first commercial scale, electricity generating, grid connected tidal stream project.
It exported over 11.6GWh of power during its life and the lessons learned from the project have underpinned both present and future global tidal turbine development.
Simec Atlantis said the project helped shape the MeyGen development, the world’s largest multi-megawatt tidal stream array, located in the Pentland Firth.
MeyGen, which achieved first power in 2016, has now exported circa 19GWh of electricity to the national grid and its total system availability, a key performance metric, is approaching 90% for 2019 to date.
The first phase of decommissioning SeaGen started in May 2016 with the removal of the system’s two 600kW Powertrains.
In August 2018 the topsides and crossbeam were removed, and final works were completed with the removal of the remaining tower and subsea structure.
Simec Atlantis chief executive Tim Cornelius said: “SeaGen’s successful decommission represents a major milestone moment for the tidal power industry.
“Not only has it validated the complete project lifecycle of a tidal stream energy development, moreover, we have done so with a tidal stream project of full commercial scale, that was connected to the grid.
“I would like to pay tribute to the skill and expertise of the team at Atlantis and at Keynvor MorLift for delivering this truly impressive feat of engineering.”
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