Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. has announced a collaboration with Electric Power Development Co. to install the Wind Challenger hard sail wind power propulsion system on the coal carrier Kurotakisan Maru Ⅲ.
This initiative aims to explore sustainable propulsion alternatives for maritime transportation.
The installation is scheduled for the second half of 2025.
This marks the first installation of the Wind Challenger on a vessel currently in service by retrofitting. The introduction of the Wind Challenger is expected to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by about 5% on a Japan-Australia voyage and about 8% on a Japan-North America West Coast voyage, compared to a conventional vessel of the same type, thus contributing to reduced GHG emissions during fuel transportation.
Recently, MOL disclosed that the vessel Shofu Maru achieved daily fuel savings of up to 17%, and an average fuel savings of 5 to 8% per voyage, thanks to the utilization of the Wind Challenger system.
MOL has set the target of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 in the “MOL Group Environmental Vision 2.2.” One of the main actions to achieve this target is the “introduction of further energy-saving technologies,” and the group plans to launch 25 vessels equipped with the Wind Challenger by 2030, increasing to 80 by 2035.
