Scottish company Swift Anchors has received a £395,000 grant from the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) to further develop and test its cost-efficient, rapidly deployable, and environmentally sensitive rock anchoring solutions for the offshore energy and aquaculture industries. The company, which has been owned by AQUOS SCHOTTEL Marine Technologies since October 2022, will use the grant to complete testing of its anchor technology in diverse and technically challenging rock seabed sites for floating offshore wind (FOW) projects.
In collaboration with subcontractors like Morek and Mollart Cox, and researchers from the University of Dundee, Swift Anchors will evaluate data from a number of planned FOW projects in the pipeline to deliver international targets by 2030. The company will create baseline specifications for its rock anchoring solution, such as mooring system demands, loads, and architectures. It will then build and deploy scale anchor models to a representative testing site. After testing and validation, Swift Anchors will partner with the University of Dundee for testing across an array of rock strengths. The resulting data will be evaluated, and the anchor design will be updated and certified by DNV (the international accredited registrar and classification society) against a specific floating wind standard: DNV-ST-0119.
The OWGP is a long-term program aimed at promoting closer collaboration across the offshore wind supply chain in the UK. The program implements technology and business improvement programs and facilitates business opportunities between developers of offshore wind projects and supply chain companies, like Swift Anchors. OWGP is funded by the UK Offshore Wind Industry Council, and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult leads its delivery.
David Ainsworth, Managing Director of Swift Anchors, expressed his gratitude for the grant support from OWGP, which he says will allow the company to work with the University of Dundee and other companies on this anchoring project. According to Ainsworth, the grant provides Swift Anchors with the opportunity to capitalize on the fantastic opportunities that floating offshore wind offers. He also emphasized the importance of finding cost-effective and robust anchoring solutions for diverse and challenging seabeds, which he believes are essential for deploying the potential FOW capacity over the next decade and more.
Swift Anchors' experience of working on tidal energy projects on both sides of the Atlantic over the past decade, combined with the pedigree and expertise of the wider SCHOTTEL group of companies that the firm draws from, will support the growth of FOW in the UK and global waters. The results from the OWGP project will further solidify the company's position as a leading provider of cost-efficient, environmentally friendly rock anchoring solutions for the offshore energy and aquaculture industries.
