Southwestern Western Australia resident Paul Cadwell is on a mission to turn non-operational oil rigs into clean-green electrical energy producing platforms.
Mr Cadwell, of Busselton, is an electrical engineer and has spent his 50-year career working on large-scale construction projects around the world.
He is the chief executive of Legacy Global Green Energy, saying there were more than 17 countries around the world that have defunct or abandoned oil and gas platforms in the ocean.
"Once oil and gas platforms reach the end of their life cycle a lot of companies abandon them or leave them [offshore]," he said.
"It is against the law in a lot of countries to do that and they are obliged to decommission and remove them, however there is no will to police it.
"Our process is to re-purpose those platforms without having to remove them and turn them into electrical energy producing platforms.
"We can run a cable from the platform under sea to shore and connect it to the electricity grid."
Mr Cadwell said re-purposing platforms would provide another source of revenue to oil and gas companies without having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to remove them.
"We are providing oil and gas companies with an alternative to transition from oil to renewable energy, and can re-purpose or transition a platform at a cost of around 50 per cent less than the cost to remove it," he said.
There are at least 3,700 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico off the US coast, which were sitting in the ocean requiring decommissioning.
Mr Cadwell said many articles had been written about the cost to decommission oil and gas platforms, most of which would be paid for by the taxpayer.
"A lot of these companies have gone broke or are no longer in business so the taxpayer is likely to foot the bill for these," he said.
"I have been working on our concept for at least 10 years to re-purpose and transition from fossil fuels to renewable green energy."
In Australia there are around 15 oil platforms in Commonwealth waters off the coast of WA, the NT, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmanian coastlines.
A National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority spokesperson said when a facility ceased operations it was required by law to be decommissioned, which could occur in various ways.
The spokesperson said some facilities were removed completely, others partially, and others repurposed.
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Legacy Global Green Energy plans to setup offices globally and in WA which will be staffed by engineers who will talk to companies and governments about doing feasibility studies on repurposing the platforms.
"Over the years we've had discussions with a number of companies, they were quite interested in it but like everything in Australia, the Australians will sit on their hands and wait and see until someone else does it," Mr Cadwell said.
"We need feasibility studies because not everyone of those platforms will be suitable, some are in a state of decay or the structure might not withstand the weight of electrical turbines we would put on the platforms.
"We are doing this at the right time, the darlings of renewables have been solar and wind, however geothermal is making big waves in the public and our process is based on geothermal.
"Geothermal is a proven technology onshore and we intend to transition that to shore from an ocean based platform using exactly the same technology.
"It is proven technology, we are not breaking ground in any new way, it is only out in the ocean."
Mr Cadwell said they were the first company to initiate such a project, and while it was not new once it was out there he expects it would be adopted by many companies.
"It is exciting and the main reason I am doing this is because I need to leave a legacy for a clean world for my son and future generations," he said.
