The International Windship Association launched a new initiative to accelerate shipping decarbonisation. A new campaign called the ‘Decade of Wind Propulsion’, aim to accelerate the adoption of hybrid alternative propulsion methods, blending wind, alternative fuels and energy efficiency measures.
The ultimate goal of the campaing is to achieve a rapid and measurable decarbonisation of the global shipping fleet in the 2020s.
Highlighting the advantage of wind propulsion technology to deliver immediate and scalable answers to this
challenge, Gavin Allwright, IWSA Secretary General, said:
Wind propulsion systems help ship owners and operators reduce carbon emissions by up to 30% for retrofit solutions and significantly higher for optimised newbuild ships. It’s clear that wind must be fully integrated into the decarbonisation pathways for shipping – it is an abundant, widely available and free energy source waiting to be harnessed
Currently, there are 11 large ocean-going vessels with wind-assist systems installed, with over 20 rigs installed along with two more installations pending this quarter and a further 20 plus smaller sail cargo and small cruise vessels using wind.
In addition, the EU has forecast that up to 10,700 wind propulsion installations could be in place by 2030, and the UK Clean Maritime Plan expect that wind propulsion technologies will become a £2billion a year segment, with approximately 30,000 installations (equivalent to 40-45% market penetration) by the 2050’s.”
What is more, IWSA’s ‘Decade of Wind Propulsion’ campaign combines three elements:
- Delivery: Numbers will double each year going forward. IWSA expects that over 40 large wind propulsion equipped vessels will be operating by 2023.
- Optimisation: R&D to improve optimisation of existing systems continues apace alongside new concepts and
solutions. IWSA is launching a ‘Wind Propulsion Accelerator Programme’, which has a dedicated test fleet, an
incubator programme to support wind technology and a pipeline to assist bringing these systems to market. The optimisation strategy includes research in hybrid systems that fully integrate the energy management vessel from ship design to advanced weather routing and other aspects, which enable the full benefit of wind to be realised. - Facilitation: The adoption of a hybrid W.A.V.E. – Wind propulsion with Activity – operational optimisation (speed, power limits, weather routing etc); Vessel optimisation (EMS integration, energy efficiency measures etc.) to significantly reduce the amount of Eco fuels required, thus enabling a quicker, deeper and ultimately cheaper roll out of these new fuels into the market. Less storage space, the increase of vessel range and even the potential to generate fuel onboard are further key facilitators.
IWSA will alo increase the information available to the industry through publications and events. Namely, it will release a comprehensive wind propulsion market report, a documentary release and a weekly interview series along with technical papers and the release of public deliverables from the Wind-Assisted Ship Propulsion (WiSP) joint industry project, as well as the similarly titled EU Interreg WASP project.
This initiative represents a redoubling of our efforts to accelerate the number of commercial shipping installations and a determined drive to create a level playing field in all policy decarbonisation pathways and regulatory frameworks internationally
Mr. Allwright concluded.
