Wind Power Returns To Cargo Ships

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The global cargo shipping industry has been eyeballing wind power to help push ditch dirty bunker fuel oil out of the way. The question is exactly how much fuel could be offset by equipping a ship with wind-harvesting devices, and a new AI-enabled digital twin has the answers.

Wind Power Is Coming For Your Bunker Fuel

With some exceptions, cargo shippers are not deploying “sails” in the normal sense of the word, but they are deploying wind power. The cargo ship sails of today are made of rigid materials, typically borrowing aerodynamic technology from aviation, motorsports, and racing yachts.

The Finnish firm Norsepower has gone off in a different direction with its unique Rotor Sails, which deploy the Magnus effect. Among other phenomena, the Magnus effect describes the behavior of a curveball and other objects that spin through the air. The air flow accelerates on one side and decelerates on the other side, producing force in a direction perpendicular to the movement of the object.

Norsepower’s Rotor Sails are not suspended in the air, of course. They are fixed on the deck. They harness wind power as the ship moves, with an electrical motor providing the spin for a tall tube that resembles a smokestack.

“The rotating cylinders utilize wind to pack the air behind them. This is done to create pressure difference, which causes a powerful thrust. This allows the main engine to be throttled back, saving fuel and reducing emissions,” Norsepower explains.

Oil-Killing Combo: Wind Power Plus Route Optimization

Norsepower has been surfacing regularly on the CleanTechnica radar, partly on account of its attention to route optimization for fuel savings. Last year, for example, the firm reported a total fuel savings of 28% on the Atlantic crossing, from Amsterdam to New York City, for a ship outfitted with Rotor Sails. The Rotor Sails accounted for an impressive 16% of the fuel savings. The remainder was made up by carefully tweaking the ship’s route to account for waves, weather, and other factors that could help or hinder the efficiency of the Rotor sails (see more Rotor Sail background here).

Norsepower has not been letting the grass grow under its feet since then. It has been deploying AI-enabled routing technology developed by the French firm Syroco to level up its route optimization systems.

On February 25, the two firms reported the results of a Rotor Sail installation on the tanker Alcyone, part of a 14-vessel fleet under the umbrella of the French shipper Socatra.

The Alcyone deployment yielded a fuel savings of up to 21% per voyage, validated Syroco. “By combining Norsepower’s wind propulsion systems with Syroco’s weather routing technology, these savings are amplified, with initial results revealing voyages where combining the technologies can as much as double the performance,” Norsepower stated.

The Digital Twin Difference

Although the Rotor Sail does not deploy wind power in the conventional sense, its performance can be enhanced by factoring in wind conditions and windage, which refers to the amount of a ship’s area exposed to wind.

Syroco’s technology enables ship operators to see the Rotor Sail at work in a virtual, real time representation. The digital twin collects information about weather and sea conditions, and combines them with shipboard data covering the Rotor Sail itself along with hull design, windage, propulsion systems and appendages, meaning the structures and equipment protruding from the ship’s hull below the waterline.

“This digital twin enables vessel operators to optimise routes in real-time, considering wind propulsion, waves, swell, currents, arrival times, safety constraints, and cargo-specific parameters,” Norsepower notes.

More Wind Power For Cargo Ships

Keep an eye on Norsepower and Syroco. The two partners indicate that additional deployments are in the works, and Norsepower has already picked up the pace since its launched back in 2014. In 2019 Norsepower had just three deployments under its belt. As of last September, the company had a total of 37 Rotor Sails on its to-do list, to be installed on 15 different vessels by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, some cargo shippers are adopting a business model that leverages wind power in a more traditional way, enabling them to ditch virtually all fuel oil for propulsion.

The French firm Grain de Sail, for example, already sends its sailing ships across the Atlantic on a regular basis. Another up-and-comer is the a trimaran sailing ship developed by the French startup VELA. The company estimates that it can get cargo across the Atlantic on wind power alone in 10-15 days, a timeline comparable to a fuel-powered ship.

They may be on to something. Some companies that would normally use air freight have been looking for a way to decarbonize, and cargo can ships offer a way out. That was the theme I heard when I dropped in on a BNEF event in New York City last fall, where an executive with Estee Lauder described how the company cut its carbon footprint by switching to cargo ships from air freight.

Meanwhile, Back In The USA

Wind power is not the only oil-ditching trick up the sleeve of cargo shippers. Alternative fuels like green ammonia are beginning to emerge as well.

In January, Lloyd’s Register reported that shipowners ordered an overall total of 1,737 vessels in 2024, including at least 600 alternative fuel-capable ships.

“Shipowners continued to invest for a future of lower emissions in 2024,” noted Lloyd’s, though the firm advised that the pace of decarbonization needs to pick up. Including those on order, the global alternative fuel fleet now stands at 3,597 vessels or approximately 4.8% of all vessels.

Don’t count on any help from the US. With barely more than a month in office to his credit, President Trump has already converted the US into a Soviet-style satellite state under the thumb of Russia, ditching longtime alliances to perpetuate the fossil fuel economy.

Trump already struck a killing blow at the entire US offshore wind industry with one swipe of his pen. His anti-electrification agenda will do further damage, leaving the US and its citizens to hold the carbon pollution bag while other nations move on.

Thoughts? If you’d rather see the US keep up with other modern democracies, drop a note in the comment yet or better yet, tell your representatives in Congress. After all, Congress is a co-equal, agenda-setting branch of government, at least for now.

Photo: Wind power is returning to cargo ships in unusual forms, including a cylindrical sail that deploys the Magnus effect (courtesy of Norsepower).