Wind propulsion project launched

The JIP covers the majority of all marketed wind-assisted ship propulsion systems and aims to overcome barriers to the uptake of these technologies by improving methods for performance prediction, providing ship owners and operators with predictions for their fleet and reviewing the regulatory environment.

“As the regulatory framework increases pressure to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the time is right to explore the potential of wind to generate savings on emissions, fuel and cost,” said Gurinder Singh, ABS global sustainability director.

“This project has significant potential to reduce barriers to the adoption of sustainable wind propulsion technologies and make a positive contribution to achieving IMO 2030 and 2050 objectives,” he added.

Wind-assisted propulsion technologies decrease the fuel consumption of a merchant vessel through the use of sails or some other device converting the kinetic energy of the wind into thrust.

Patrick Hooijmans, MARIN senior project manager ships, said: “A major barrier to [the] use of wind energy on board is the shortage of transparent and independently verified methods to predict performance. A reliable model will assist in adoption.”

As well as ABS and MARIN, the Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion project brings together a range of partners from the shipping industry, including China Ship Scientific Research Center, Vale SA, Delft University of Technology, Dykstra Naval Architects, Eco Flettner, Norsepower, Berge Bulk, Computed Wing Sail, Anemoi and FinOcean Ltd.