Wind power has potential for commercial shipping

A study prepared for the Directorate-General for Climate Action found that savings from Flettner rotors and wing sails are seen as comparable.

   A new study on the potential for using wind propulsion technology in the commercial shipping industry has concluded that if some wind propulsion technologies for ships reach marketability in 2020, the maximum market potential for bulk carriers, tankers and container vessels is estimated to add up to around 3,700-10,700 installed systems until 2030, including both retrofits and installations on newbuilds.
   Adoption of windpower would depend on bunker fuel prices, the speed of the vessels, and the payback or “discount rate” that investors in the technology expect, according to the study by CE Delft, the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, Fraunhofer ISI, and the Chalmers University of Technology.
   It was prepared for the Directorate-General for Climate Action, or DG Climate, which is a department of the European Commission that was established in February 2010.
   Use of wind power at the rates projected in the report could lead to reductions of 3.5-7.5 million tons of CO2 in 2030, and the wind propulsion sector would then be good for around 6,500-8,000 direct and around 8,500-10,000 indirect jobs.
   In order to determine the savings potentials, the authors of the report used data from automatic identification systems (AIS), and modeled the potential for power savings using various sorts of wind technology – soft sails, rigid sails/wing sails, hull sails, towing kites, rotors, and wind turbines – for different ship types operating on different routes and two different speeds.
   “For the six sample ships and the selected dimensions of wind propulsion technologies, relative power savings across the AIS-recorded voyage profiles are found to be comparable for Flettner rotor and wing sails; for towing kites, relative savings are, by comparison, higher for smaller vessels and lower for larger vessels; relative savings are lowest for wind turbines,” the study said.
   “Absolute savings are larger at the higher voyage speed for the wing sail and the rotor for all ship types considered,” according to the study. In addition, the study said savings of 5 percent to 18 percent were found to be comparable for Flettner rotors and wing sails, “with relative savings on the larger ships exceeding those on the smaller ships, especially for bulk carriers.
    “For towing kites, relative savings (1-9 percent in high speed scenario) are, compared to rotors and wing sails, higher for smaller vessels and lower for larger vessels; relative savings are lowest for wind turbines (1-2 percent in high speed scenario).”