The ArianeGroup transports sections of France’s Ariane spacecraft to its launch site at Kourou, and Airbus moves sections of the Airbus aircraft between its various sites. Both organisations have chosen sail-powered ships for the job. Increasingly large industrial groups and shipping companies have decided to cut fossil fuel consumption by supporting initiatives in the maritime transport sector, responsible for 3% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and where the volume of merchandise transported, 80-90% of world trade, has risen by 250% over the past forty years.
The Paris Agreement of 2016
The alternative to fossil fuels is imposed by international treaties, starting with the Paris Agreement of 2016, signed by almost all the nations of the world, an accord that commits signatories to limit global temperature rise to under 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels and limit it to 1.5°C. The target has also been set by COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Dubai in early December the conference recommended a gradual reduction of fossil fuel use for energy generation and its total abandonment by 2050.
Sails for future: rediscovering sail power
Respecting these commitments and thereby saving the planet has led to a rediscovery of sail power for maritime commerce. As far back as 2018 ArianeGroup, a joint French aerospace venture that builds Ariane, the European satellite launcher, held a sail ship contest for transporting launch system components from France to French Guiana.
Two years later the project was taken up by Dutch ship building yard Neptune Marine and Ayro, a sail propulsion start-up by founder Marc van Peteghem together with Vincent Lauriot Prévost, head of the VPLP studio. The work carried out by VPLP in 2015 led to the creation of Oceanwings, a system that derives directly from the 68-metre sailwing of the USA 17, the trimaran designed by van Peteghem and Lauriot Prévost for Larry Ellison that won the 2010 America’s Cup. The sail ship, called Canopée, was launched in 2022, and then in July 2023 four Oceanwings were mounted on Canopée. These are automatic, 37-metre high vertical sails comprising two independent adjustable wings that create a sail area of 363 square metres. Combined with two 3840 kW diesel-electric units using low-emission fuels like bioethanol the four Oceanwings enable 35% reductions in CO2 emissions for every voyage.
The Oceanbird
Oceanbird Wings are wing sails similar to the Oceanwings. They have been developed by a Swedish project led by Wallenius Marine in a joint venture with KTH Royal Institute of Technology, RISE – SSPA Maritime Centre, an independent research institute, and Sweden’s transport ministry. The project involves the construction of a 220-metre freighter with a 40 metre beam and four Oceanbird wings, capable of carrying 7,000 cars as well as bulk materials and equipment. The vessel would become operational by early 2027.
The Oceanbird Wings comprise a sail with flaps, and the masts can folded down onto the deck if the wind is too strong or when not needed. Further confirmation of a burgeoning interest in wind-powered ships comes from the Mitsubishi Corporation with its Pyxis Ocean, a bulk carrier with a capacity of 81,000 tonnes on which is mounted two 37.5-metre tall wing sails with a fixed central element and two adjustable side sections. These sails, called WindWings, are made of stainless steel and fibreglass and can rotate, enabling the Pyxis Ocean to save up to 1.5 tonnes of fuel every day.
Sail for future and Airbus
Not everyone has gone down the same route, Airbus, in fact, has commissioned the Louis Dreyfus Armateurs company to launch construction of a fleet of wind-powered ships to be used for transporting Airbus components between the group’s sites. All the vessels will be powered by six Flettner rotors, a system invented in the early 20th century by German engineer Anton Flettner. Flettner rotors are vertical cylinders that rotate in the wind, generating lift that provides a propulsive force for the ship. After a series of experiments Flettner installed two of his rotors, 15 metres tall and with a diameter of three metres, on the German ship Buckau. The system also included a 50 Cv electric motor to kickstart the rotors. In 1925 the Buckau completed its first voyage across the North Sea and the following year it reached New York.
Those developing the Airbus fleet can draw on the experience gained by the E-Ship 1, a 130-metre German freighter launched in 2010 used for transporting wind farm components. E-Ship 1, owned by Germany’s Enercom (wind turbines) mounts four four 27-metre high, 4-metre diameter Flettner rotors, assisted by a series of turbines powered by the exhaust gases produced by the diesels. Launched in 2008, the E-Ship 1 made its maiden voyage from Germany to Ireland in 2010. In 2015 it carried cargo from Germany to Uruguay, and Enercom reported fuel savings of 25%.
Norsepower
The E-Ship 1 is not alone. Finland’s Norsepower (Finnish engineer Sigurd Savonius invented a wind turbine that Flettner took as a basis for the development of its rotors -ed) specialises in the construction and installation of Flettner rotors, renamed Rotor Sails. They have been installed on cargo ships, oil tankers and passenger ships like the ferry linking the German city of Rostock with Gedser in Denmark.
Equipped with four Rotor Sails the Copenhagen ferry achieves a 4-5% reduction in CO2 emissions every voyage. Norsepower’s research finds that most global maritime routes enjoy strong winds that will benefit ships using wind rotors. On a trans-Atlantic crossing the average energy savings provided by a 30-metre high rotor with a diameter of five metres on a ship sailing at 15 knots can be as high as 500 kW as the vessel follows the route of the clipper ships a century and a half after their heyday.
Emilio Martinelli
