MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding have jointly obtained ‘Approval In Principle (AIP)’ from ClassNK for the design of a hard sail system. The system converts wind energy to propulsive force with telescopic hard sail.
As MOL said, the system is crucial for the ‘Wind Challenger Project’, which MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding are leading.
The Wind Challenger Project aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by using wind energy, and the companies obtaining the AIP marks the completion of the initial design related to the sail structure and controls.
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Now, MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding will continue to move toward a detailed design and implementation for the Wind Challenger Project, aspiring to launch a newbuilding ships that is equipped with a hard sail.
That would reduce the vessel’s GHG emissions by about 5% on a Japan-Australia voyage, and about 8% on Japan-North America West Coast voyage. The long-term goal is to establish a widely accepted solution to achieve the IMO target of reducing shipping’s total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050
The Wind Challenger Project began in 2009 with the ‘Wind Challenger Plan’, which is an industry-academia joint research project led by The University of Tokyo. From 2013, the team has been chosen to receive ‘Subsidy for Next-generation marine environment-related technology research’ by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
In January 2018, MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding took charge of the plan.
