Malin Marine Consultants (MMC), feed, feasibility and concept design specialists, and part of Malin Group, recently secured support through Scottish Enterprise’s CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Fund, to undertake a feasibility study on the application of topology optimisation to current drag anchor designs while enabling a scalable advanced manufacturing process, specifically additive manufacturing. The welcome CAN DO Innovation Feasibility Challenge Call has seen a number of grants being made available to Scottish businesses to enable detailed design, technical and/or commercial feasibility studies to support the development of innovative solutions to be deployed in the offshore wind sector. With ambitious targets, and challenging economic conditions, the funding is intended to support the development of innovative technology solutions that address key challenges within Scotland’s offshore wind sector, helping to evaluate the feasibility of such projects and take us one step closer to a more sustainable future.

Here Chris Dunn, Managing Director of Malin Marine Consultants, and Terry Hogg, Head of Innovation Systems and Future Industries, from Scottish Enterprise share a little more on the CAN DO Call, its aspirations and impact to date, as well as MMC’s drag anchor project and potential implications for design optimisation and manufacturing.

The CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Fund aimed to support projects focusing on the development of innovative technologies to address challenges in the offshore wind sector, particularly in areas like installation, operations and maintenance, electrical infrastructure, and more. Support came through the form of financial grants, ranging from £30,000 to £50,000, with all projects to be completed by June of this year. Speaking on the CAN DO fund, its aims and aspirations, Terry Hogg,  Head of Innovation Systems and Future Industries at Scottish Enterprise noted, ‘the CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Challenge Call was created to uncover and support the most innovative and impactful solutions from Scotland’s supply chain that could address the pressing challenges in the deep water and floating offshore wind sector. The initiative was shaped by insights from extensive research, industry roadmaps, and direct engagement with developers and key supply chain companies. This collaborative approach helped identify the areas where innovation is most urgently needed to reduce the levelized cost of energy and maintain Scotland’s leadership in floating offshore wind.’

Indeed, the Scottish Government has outlined ambitious targets to increase its offshore wind capacity by up to 40 gigawatts by 2040, with 8-11 of those gigawatts in place by 2030. This increased ambition aligns with the UK government’s broader goal of reaching 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, but also underlines the need to support innovation, through fund such as CAN DO, that identify and support new and novel solutions – both in design and manufacture.

This sentiment is mirrored by Terry, who speaking on the success of the fund to date suggests, ‘the call has uncovered and supported a range of innovative companies and projects that could provide solutions to the Offshore Wind industry’s most pressing challenges. These include the creation of new technologies, services, and processes that support the offshore wind projects and industry in Scotland and help position Scottish companies to compete globally. The projects are initially small-scale feasibility projects and we are working with the innovation challenge call winners on next steps to develop and commercialize their solutions.’

One of these projects was successfully delivered by Malin Marine Consultants, part of Malin Group, last month. A small specialist consultancy unit, with Headquarters on the banks of the Clyde, MMC have been leading the way on advancing marine applications for Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM), through their award winning* work on MariLight and MariLight 2. Both studies, led by MMC and delivered with a range of industry partners including Altair, NMIS, Lloyds Register, Siccar, Hexagon, Caley and BAE Systems successfully demonstrated the ways in which LSAM technologies may deliver significant savings in terms of material, emissions, and manufacturing. The team, heartened by such positive results, sought support through the CAN DO OW call, to investigate how the lessons learned to date, may be applied to drag anchors.

As Chris Dunn, Managing Director of MMC notes, ‘drag anchors have traditionally been designed and built using a ‘welded plate’ philosophy, fusing large, thick, shaped plates together to create a heavy structure with the required resistance when embedded in the seabed. The manufacture is laborious and significantly time consuming. However, the recent developments in topology optimisation and large-scale additive manufacturing introduces the potential to completely redesign drag anchors to be more efficient and effective while allowing a scalable, robotic process to automatically series-produce the required numbers for offshore wind.’

The opportunity to reconceptualise drag anchors was similarly recognised by those awarding CAN DO funds, with the award of funding to undertake a feasibility study across the past 2 months. As Terry explained, ‘we supported Malin Marine Consultants ’s bid for drag anchor optimisation as it addresses a critical bottleneck in offshore wind deployment. Anchors have been identified as a key area where innovation is urgently needed, and MMC proposed a novel manufacturing approach with the potential to significantly improve productivity, reduce environmental impact, and ease supply chain pressures. The project aligns well with the fund’s objectives and we have confidence in MMC’s ability to deliver meaningful and measurable outcomes.’

To deliver such results, the MMC team first designed and printed a baseline anchor, which bore a close resemblance to industry standards, before progressing to the creation of a series of test models which were printed in polymer and tested using a small test rig designed by the specialist engineering team. And the tests were convincingly positive, clearly indicating savings across the materials required and lowering of emissions levels associated with production, and increase efficiency of use.

Scottish Enterprise, and the MMC have been delighted with the initial results, with Terry reflecting, ‘the findings suggest that additive manufacturing and topology optimisation could improve the efficiency of floating offshore wind generation by delivering lighter, stronger, and more efficient anchor designs. In the longer term, this could significantly reduce material usage, lower carbon emissions, and improve installation logistics. These are all key factors in scaling up floating offshore wind deployment. The study also reinforces the broader value of advanced manufacturing techniques in solving complex engineering challenges. We see this as a strong signal for further investment and innovation in this space.’ Chris, from MMC is similarly positive, though he appreciates it is early days, ‘there is a considerable amount of de-risking work to be done before this becomes a full-scale, commercial reality, however the steps are clear and achievable, and the prize is significant.’

Offshore Wind Scotland’s manufacturing supply chain factsheet has estimated around 6,885 anchors will be required across ScotWind and INTOG projects, and Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s Mooring and Anchoring Market Predictions estimated a total of 5,024 drag anchors by 2050. Across the 25 year period, this would require an average production of just over 200 drag anchors a year, or 4 anchors every week, a fairly significant ‘prize’ if production was to be optimised. As Terry reflects, ‘it’s early stages however the impact of the CAN DO OW innovation feasibility challenge could be significant. Supporting and accelerating innovation will help ensure Scotland retains its early market advantage in the development of offshore wind technology. It strengthens the domestic supply chain, enabling local companies to move up the value chain and become exporters of high-value solutions. This, in turn, contributes to long-term economic sustainability and supports the transition to a cleaner, more affordable energy future.’

You can read more on the CAN DO OW fund, Malin Marine Consultants and their Drag Anchor project here.