Wind Energy To Push Dirty Bunker Fuel Overboard

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President-elect Trump sailed into office on the wings of corporate largesse from the US oil industry, but the industry may come to regret it. After all, look what he did for coal the last time around. Besides, the global decarbonization movement is still a force to be reckoned with. A case in point is the shipping industry, which is beginning to edge fuel oil aside in favor of harvesting the wind energy resources right under their feet.

Wind Energy Returns To The Seven Seas

The AirWing rigid sail from the UK startup GT Wings (formerly GT Green Technologies) is representative of the new breed of seagoing wind energy harvesting devices. In contrast to conventional cloth sails snapping in the breeze, AirWing is a wind-driven propulsion system engineered in the shape of a tall segmented column.

Depending on the shipping route and other variables, GT Wings expects a fuel savings of up to 30% for cargo ships outfitted with AirWings.

The AirWing is not in commercial production yet. A prototype is slated to undergo its first major tryout in March, but GT Wings founder and CEO George Thompson is already anticipating a wide market. Last week he told BBC News correspondent Paul Murphy that about 40,000 vessels, or about half of the global fleet, could be retrofitted with AirWing devices.

The company has been deploying roots in the F1 racing circuit to fine tune the aerodynamics of their wind harvesting device. The result is a compact footprint that makes ample room for cargo operations, which explains why GT Wings is eyeing a retrofit market in the tens of thousands. Newly built ships can also be designed to maximize the efficiency of the system.

Last summer, GT Wings also lined up the manufacturer A2OM, which is deploying a composite material developed by the firmKS Composites.

UK Shipper Takes Its Wind Energy Gloves Off

The AirWing trial comes at a pivotal moment for the global shipping industry, which is under increasing pressure to decarbonize. Despite some signs of progress towards a decarbonization goal, regional conflicts can turn the clock back. For example, bunker sales in Singapore, the busiest bunker fuel market in the world, have increased in recent years. Energy industry observers note that the uptick is partly due to terror attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, which forced shippers to choose longer routes.

The UK firm Carisbrooke Shipping is not waiting around for more trouble to break out. The company has been partnering with GT Wings and the University of Bristol to push the wind energy envelope and “spearhead a revolutionary shift in commercial shipping,” as they put it.

“Thanks to a substantial £3.7 million grant win from the UK Department for Transport (DfT), Carisbrooke is set to install a 20-meter AirWing™ unit on one of its UK-registered vessels, marking a significant leap towards sustainable and eco-friendly maritime practices,” the company explains.

“Particularly crucial for general cargo ships with limited deck space, AirWing™ addresses the urgent need for sustainable shipping solutions,” Carisbrooke adds.

Carisbrooke has a relatively small fleet under management at just 27 vessels, compared to industry leaders that count their roster by the hundreds. Still, the company expects to set the bar for wind energy globally. Carisbrooke has already marked out its territory as a technology innovation award-winner, and the University of Bristol connection provides the AirWing venture with credentials from top composite structure experts.

Here Comes The Weirdest Looking Wind Energy Harvester Ever

If you’re wondering why the AirWing looks nothing like a wind turbine, that’s a good question. Wind turbines are designed to generate electricity from wind energy. The Airwing, in contrast, is designed to generate thrust. As GT Wings anticipates, with the right aerodynamic tweaks, a hard sail can deploy enough wind energy to result in a significant savings on fuel consumption.

The Finnish firm Norsepower has come up with a different strategy for harvesting wind energy. Its new Rotor Sails are long tubes with a spinning rotor inside, designed to harness the Magnus effect. The same effect is at work when a spinning ball sails through the air, creating a curved path such as that exhibited in baseball’s famous curveball.

In a Rotor Sail, wind energy accelerates on one side and decelerates on the other when it encounters the rotor. The result is a pressure difference. “This creates a force that is perpendicular to the wind flow direction,” Norsepower explains (see lots more Norsepower background here).

Norsepower already has its hard sail on the market. The company’s latest move is a strategic one in partnership with the Norwegian shipping firm Berge Rederi, aimed at demonstrating that wind energy can be deployed effectively along routes in the Northern Sea. Norsepower expects that the Rotor Sails will perform “exceptionally well” under windy conditions there.

The partnership involves two newly built 130-meter cargo vessels. The first one is expected to launch by the end of this year, outfitted with two Rotor Sails tailored to withstand extreme weather.

As new builds, the two ships are also designed to showcase batteries and shaft generators along with the Rotor Sails, enabling them to operate in hybrid-electric mode for short distances.

Making Room For Traditional Sails, Too

The sheer size and number of full scale cargo ships has also created some room for innovative shippers to slip through the crowd in smaller vessels that harvest wind energy the old fashioned way, with sails.

The French startup VELA is one example to cross the CleanTechnica radar. The company calculates that its sail-only trimarans can execute a warehouse-to-warehouse Atlantic crossing to the US East Coast in 10-15 days, about the same as a conventional cargo ship.

“Helping matters along is the sophisticated state of today’s shipping route planning systems, enabling the VELA sailing ship to avoid the doldrums and take advantage of optimal wind power opportunities along the crossing,” CleanTechnica observed.

The company also expects to save time and money by relying on lightweight pallets instead of deploying standard three-ton shipping containers. Each of its ships can carry 450 pallets or the equivalent of 51 shipping containers.

”Each pallet represents a reduction of 200kg in weight and the corresponding CO2 emissions,” VELA explains.

In an email update to CleanTechnica last year, VELA also noted that solar panels and hydro-generators will provide about half of the auxiliary power needed for the onboard kitchen and other systems. Conventional diesel-electric equipment will make up the difference, at least for now.

The company’s first trimaran is reportedly under construction in Australia, so stay tuned for more on that.

Image (cropped): The Airwing hard sail from GT Wings harvests wind energy to reduce the use of maritime bunker fuel in cargo ships (courtesy of GT Wings).