Sustainable Marine sells Swift Anchors business to German partner

Blue economy solutions provider Sustainable Marine has sold its anchoring and mooring business Swift Anchors to Aquos, a subsidiary of its largest shareholder and long-standing partner Schottel.

The announcement comes shortly after the launch of Swift Anchors next-generation, remotely operated rock anchor installation system, dubbed AROV2 – which will be used to install anchors for Sustainable Marine’s Pempa’q Project – the world’s largest floating tidal array.

Swift Anchors’ technology has been developed in tandem with Sustainable Marine’s flagship tidal energy technology, the PLAT-I floating instream tidal energy system, which recently became the first of its kind to deliver electricity to the grid in Canada.

Swift Anchors’ technology offers a broad range of solutions including large helical screw anchors for sand, shingle and clay seabeds, rock anchors for a range of rocks and grouted piles for mixed seabed geologies, and is expected to facilitate faster and more cost-effective mooring installations in highly energetic tidal sites, with very short working windows.

In particular, the rock anchors drive significant OPEX and CAPEX cost savings, plus wide-ranging environmental benefits compared to traditional to gravity anchors, according to Sustainable Marine.

Jason Hayman, Sustainable Marine’s CEO, said: “It takes many years to successfully develop ‘first-of-a-kind’ technology and effectively demonstrate commercial value. We are pleased to see Swift Anchors making this natural transition to our long-standing partner Schottel.

“We see potential for more technology and IP spin offs in the future. Under Aquos, Swift Anchors will receive the necessary capital, combined with detailed engineering expertise, large-scale manufacturing capabilities and global market contacts to achieve its full potential.”

Positioned under Schottel‘s subsidiary Aquos, Swift Anchors will expand its market offering beyond marine energy, into floating wind and offshore aquaculture.

Sustainable Marine confirmed it will remain a key distribution partner for Swift Anchors, with a series of projects currently underway in North America.

David Ainsworth, managing director of Swift Anchors, said: “This is a huge vote of confidence in the technology that Sustainable Marine has spent nearly a decade developing. With the predicted growth for floating offshore wind, the timing was perfect for Sustainable Marine to create the Swift Anchors brand in 2021.

“The team at Swift Anchors has already attracted significant interest from the floating wind community, with the team, the IP, the assets and the experience we are perfectly set up to be a major supplier to the sector.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Sascha Scholz, CEO of Schottel Aquos Marine Technologies, emphasized the potential of the Swift Anchors’ technology to accelerate the development of the emerging floating wind energy industry.

Scholz said: “The anchoring technology fits into the overall group strategy to extend our offering to rapidly growing marine renewable energy industry. Swift Anchors’ products can offer significant benefits to the floating offshore wind sector which will experience incredible growth over the next decade and has huge potential in other blue energy sectors including tidal, wave, floating solar and aquaculture.”

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