Fast-growing Scottish subsea services specialist Sulmara has set its sights on further success after investing $1.6 million in equipment which will allow it to limit the environmental impact of offshore operations.

Glasgow-headquartered Sulmara has placed the order with Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. for several of its Wave Adaptive Modular Vessels (WAM-V), a dual-hull Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) which specialises in near-shore data collection.

New Jersey firm OPT said it was the largest single order it had ever received. And Andy Doggett, Chief Technology Officer at Sulmara, said the investment was a sign of things to come from the company.

He said: “Sulmara has built an extensive track record of project delivery with USV systems in Asia Pacific, Europe and the US, where we have demonstrated the ability of uncrewed systems to produce quality data in the harshest of environments with a minimal cost to the environment.

“Given it has unique characteristics including being light-weight and modular, possessing a very shallow draft and wave adaptive stability, as well as being fully electric, the WAM-V systems can carry out operations in areas where other vessels struggle and with a massively reduced carbon footprint.

"We have worked closely with the design and engineering team at OPT to adapt the WAM-V design to include additional features such as the towing of subsea sensors to widen the system’s capability to meet the needs of our clients from both a data delivery and carbon cost perspective.”

Having delivered several successful projects with WAM-V 16 throughout this year, Sulmara will continue to use the system in a variety of subsea applications including environmental monitoring, remote inspections, site characterisation and UXO detection across the energy, civil and utility markets including global offshore wind development.

The company, founded in 2019 has grown rapidly to become an international services provider with offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia by focussing on working with partners such as OPT to adapt and develop technology and methodology that will lower the environmental cost of the services needed to deliver sustainable offshore energy.

OPT CEO Philipp Stratmann, whose company is a leader in innovative and cost-effective low-carbon marine power, data and service solutions, said: “We are excited to expand our relationship with Sulmara. Their innovative approach to sustainable offshore operations is a great fit for our WAM-V autonomous vehicles. This represents the first of many expansions of our fleet, which consists of vehicles and buoys, to enable our customers to deliver a sustainable energy future.”

Sulmara COO Carlo Pinto added: “Our investment in a fleet of bespoke WAM-V USVs is marking another pivotal step in our ongoing mission to decarbonize the offshore industry. The collaboration with OPT is proof of their unwavering support and alignment with our environmental and forward-thinking goals. Together, we aim to pave a greener path forward for the offshore sector.”