France’s Naval Energies is pivoting away from the global tidal power market to concentrate on floating wind and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), only weeks after opening a turbine assembly plant in Cherbourg and days after seeing one of its 2MW devices deployed off Canada.

The decision, taken during an extraordinary board of directors meeting, will bring an immediate halt to the company’s investment in tidal, sending OpenHydro, the Irish technology outfit it acquired in 2013, into liquidation, just as one of its open-centre concept units was installed for Cape Sharp in the Bay of Fundy off Canada.