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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 10 deceMber 2018

Sails make a comeback as shipping tries to go green

By KELVIN CHAN
AP Business Writer
LONDON (AP) — As the
shipping industry faces
pressure to cut climate-
altering greenhouse gases,
one answer is blowing in
the wind.
European and U.S. tech
companies, including one
backed by airplane maker
Airbus, are pitching futuris-
tic sails to help cargo ships
harness the free and end-
less supply of wind power.
While they sometimes don’t
even look like sails — some
are shaped like spinning
columns — they represent a
cheap and reliable way to
reduce CO2 emissions for
an industry that depends
on a particularly dirty form
of fossil fuels.
“It’s an old technology,” Finnish startup company Norsepower installed its rotor sail technology on the Maersk Pelican tanker, Aug. 29, 2018, in Rotterdam,
said Tuomas Riski, the CEO Netherlands, in the first such installation on a tanker as the shipping industry tries new solutions in an effort to cut greenhouse gas
of Finland’s Norsepower, emissions.
which added its “rotor sail” Associated Press
technology for the first time agreement because of the ed by the launch of the The technology behind build its concept, which in-
to a tanker in August. difficulty attributing their world’s first all-electric pas- Norsepower’s rotor sails, volves two 50-foot (15-me-
“Our vision is that sails are emissions to individual na- senger ferry, Future of the also known as Flettner ro- ter) steel cylinders that re-
coming back to the seas.” tions, but environmental Fjords, in April. tors, is based on the prin- tract below deck.
Denmark’s Maersk Tankers activists say industry efforts Chemical maker Yara is ciple that airflow speeds up “It’s just a better mouse-
is using its Maersk Pelican are needed. meanwhile planning to on one side of a spinning trap,” said CEO James
oil tanker to test Norse- Ships belch out nearly 1 bil- build a battery-powered object and slows on the Rhodes, who says his target
power’s 30 meter (98 foot) lion tons of carbon dioxide autonomous container ship other. market is the “Panamax”
deck-mounted spinning a year, accounting for 2-3 to ferry fertilizer between That creates a force that size bulk cargo ships carry-
columns, which convert percent of global green- plant and port. can be harnessed. ing iron ore, coal or grain.
wind into thrust based on house gases. The emissions Ship owners have to move Rotor sails can generate High tech versions of con-
an idea first floated nearly are projected to grow be- with the times, said Bjorn thrust even from wind com- ventional sails are also on
a century ago. tween 50 to 250 percent by Tore Orvik, Yara’s project ing from the side of a ship. the drawing board.
Separately, A.P. Moller- 2050 if no action is taken. leader. German engineer Anton Spain’s bound4blue’s air-
Maersk, which shares Notoriously resistant to Building a conventional Flettner pioneered the idea craft wing-like sail and col-
the same owner and is change, the shipping in- fossil-fueled vessel “is a big- in the 1920s but the con- lapses like an accordion,
the world’s biggest con- dustry is facing up to the ger risk than actually look- cept languished because according to a video of a
tainer shipping company, need to cut its use of cheap ing to new technologies ... it couldn’t compete with scaled-down version from
pledged this week to cut but dirty “bunker fuel” that because if new legislation cheap oil. a recent trade fair. The first
carbon emissions to zero by powers the global fleet of suddenly appears then On a windy day, Norse- two will be installed next
2050, which will require de- 50,000 vessels — the back- your ship is out of date,” power says rotors can re- year followed by five more
veloping commercially vi- bone of world trade. said Orvik. place up to 50 percent of in 2020.
able carbon neutral vessels The IMO is taking aim more Batteries are effective for a ship’s engine propulsion. The company is in talks with
by the end of next decade. broadly at pollution, requir- coastal shipping, though Overall, the company says 15 more ship owners from
The shipping sector’s inter- ing ships to start using low- not for long-distance sea it can cut fuel consumption across Europe, Japan, Chi-
est in “sail tech” and other sulfur fuel in 2020 and send- voyages, so the industry by 7 to 10 percent. na and the U.S. to install its
ideas took on greater ur- ing ship owners scrambling will need to consider oth- Maersk Tankers said the ro- technology, said co-found-
gency after the Internation- to invest in smokestack er “energy carriers” gen- tor sails have helped the er Cristina Aleixendrei.
al Maritime Organization, scrubbers, which clean ex- erated from renewable Pelican use less engine Ship owners are now “more
the U.N.’s maritime agen- haust, or looking at cleaner power, such as hydrogen power or go faster on its desperate for new technol-
cy, reached an agreement but pricier distillate fuels. or ammonia, said Jan Kjetil travels across, resulting ogy to reduce fuel con-
in April to slash emissions by A Dutch group, the Good- Paulsen, an advisor at the in better fuel efficiency, sumption,” she said
50 percent by 2050. shipping Program , is trying Bellona Foundation, an en- though it didn’t give spe- Airseas , backed by Euro-
Transport’s contribution to biofuel, which is made from vironmental non-govern- cific figures. pean plane maker Airbus,
earth-warming emissions organic matter. ment organization. One big problem with ro- plans to deploy its para-
are in focus as negotiators It refueled a container Wind power is also feasi- tors is they get in the way chute-like automated kite
in Katowice, Poland, gath- vessel in September with ble, especially if vessels sail of port cranes that load sails on ships ferrying fuse-
er for U.N. talks to hash out 22,000 liters of used cook- more slowly. and unload cargo. To get lages from France to Ala-
the details of the 2015 Paris ing oil, cutting carbon diox- “That is where the big chal- around that, U.S. startup bama starting in 2020.
accord on curbing global ide emissions by 40 tons. lenge lies today,” said Magnuss has developed a The company predicts that
warming. In Norway, efforts to elec- Paulsen. retractable version. the “Seawing” will reduce
Shipping, like aviation, trify maritime vessels are Wind power looks to hold The New York-based com- fuel use by 20 percent on
isn’t covered by the Paris gathering pace, highlight- the most promise. pany is raising $10 million to the 13-day journey.q