THE STATE OF THE ART IN MODERN WIND-PROPULSION FOR MERCHANT SHIPS.

Held in the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in London’s prestigious West End HQ the event brought together the world’s leading academics, Class Societies and industries to focus on the potential value, the practical implications and cost-benefits of wind-propulsion for 21st Century shipping.

The keynote address was from Diane Gilpin, CEO/founder of Smart Green Shipping. Introducing this two-day, high-level symposium on wind propulsion for modern shipping she highlighted three themes: economics as a “wholly owned subsidiary” of the environment and, therefore, the urgent need to develop wind solutions as clean, affordable readily-available solutions for shipping to reduce GHG emissions; how the development of the wind-for-power sector demonstrates that markets can change very quickly once technology is proven, and that, along with the wind technology, it was also critical to develop ‘enablers’ – digital analysis methods for predicting fuel savings and accessible ways for shipping to finance wind-assist technologies.

Over the course of the following days each of these aspects were analysed in-depth and debated by the various learned speakers and contributors of some 50 people. This report has grouped the papers by these topics and highlighted and summarised the key conclusions.  

The opening address from DNVGL pointed to one of the key challenges for stimulating uptake of wind technology – unlike the prevailing propulsion from combustion engines we need to think about the power of the wind in three dimensions. This can make it complex and challenging to accurately predict. Nevertheless, the speaker, Mr Hoffmeister, DNVGL’s senior engineer, demonstrated how DNVGL had successfully developed formal procedures for assessing and certifying the fuel-saving potential and ensuring safe operation from various wind-assist technologies. They began by assessing routes, weather data, voyages, and are able to predict power savings through ship model simulation which assess hydrodynamics, aero dynamics, and additional resistance.

The University of Tokyo demonstrated the complex methods for optimising routing for ships fitted with wind technologies and concluded that, with more work, these approaches can be financially valuable to the industry by optimising fuel savings from wind devices.

The Wolfson Unit for Maritime Technology and Industrial Aerodynamics and the University of Southampton described how they had used computational fluid dynamics to evaluate the impact of changes in design to Flettner rotors installed onto a tanker. It showed that fuel savings could be achieved, that, unsurprisingly, depended on the true wind speed, the ship’s heading and operational speeds.

The Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) described how they had tested the impact of retrofitted wind devices on vessels experiencing unsteady seas by simulating conditions in their wave basin. At first scan it seems that a roll dampening effect could be expected by installing wind-assist devices on ships – the larger the devices the more dampening is the effect because the above water height better balances with the hull in difficult sea conditions.

Various technologies were described and evaluated. Norsepower’s Flettner rotor installed on the Viking Grace was shown to have reduced power demand - which the company felt was a better indication of performance than percentages fuel saved – this assertion was questioned and debated in the audience. The key takeaway is that there was a tangible fuel saving as a result of the installation of the Flettner rotor, that passengers liked it and the ship operator found it beneficial from a PR perspective over and above the commercial value.

The naval architects from VPLP gave a fascinating presentation about the 100% renewable powered experimental vessel The Energy Observer which uses wind and seawater derived hydrogen and is currently navigating the world without using any fossil fuels. Whilst this is not a commercial vessel the learning from it can inform the rapid development of securing drive from free, abundant, renewable energies.

Translating the various technical solutions into commercial products requires innovative financing. This aspect was covered by academics from Hamburg School of Business and Helmut Schmidt University in Germany. They described how the ‘sharing economy’ model – where suppliers of equipment and asset-owners share both the risks and benefits of novel technologies is mutually beneficial.

To summarise: there is a huge amount of untapped knowledge and capability that can be exploited to rapidly develop wind-assist solutions to support global shipping’s decarbonisation in a commercially attractive way. The Chair summed up the way innovations progress, based on the experience of transition from the wind-for-power segment: The first 1% takes an age; the next 5-10% market uptake is like waiting for a sneeze; the next 50% of the market shifts so fast you can barely hang on.