Return of Sail Power - BBC radio 4

[skeptik]

BBc Radio 4, Costing the Earth , 24th November

The return of the sailing ship ..or rather kite powered ship

Listen to the program from this page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/cos ... arth.shtml




Could giant kites soon be pulling supertankers?

http://skysails.info/index.php?id=13

"Carrying freight by sea should be the environmentally-friendly option. It uses less fuel than air freight and it's less dangerous than road haulage.

The trouble is that marine diesel is nasty stuff: it contributes 75% of the Sulphur Dioxide released into the atmosphere. It makes ports unpleasant places to be around, grim for local residents and fatal for marine wildlife. The solution may lie in the past - a return to sail power.

Tom Heap visits Wismar in Germany and heads out onto the Baltic Sea on the Jan Luiken, a boat equipped with a giant kite to pull the vessel along. This could be the shape of the future of sail power. Skysails are a German company who have been trialling the technology and believe that in a few years time their technology could be applied to much larger cargo vessels.

Reliant on completely unpredictable winds, carrying a huge weight of canvas and rigging the sailing ships of the past were spectacularly inefficient.

However, new technology has moved the age of sail on, and into the twenty-first century. Best of all you can now control everything by computer. No need for that large, heavy, expensive crew to look after your rigging and no need to re-rig every time the wind changes force or direction. Vast improvements in forecasting technology are also making sail viable again. Accurate satellite wind forecasts can ensure that a ship takes the route that follows the prevailing winds.

But that is not the end of the story. Research into new fuels and new vessel design will all cut down the polluting effects of the shipping industry in the years to come as scientists, and environmentalists search for the shipping Holy Grail: the environmentally friendly super tanker.

[AllanH]

I heard this programme last night, very interesting. It seems diesel would still be used, though to a lesser degree with the kites. The fact that a kite can pull a cargo ship of around 300T is impressive.

AllanH

[mikepepler]

The fact that a kite can pull a cargo ship of around 300T is impressive.

You'd be surprised what modern kites can do if you've not flown one. I've got a 2 square metre, and a 5.5 square metre as well. They're both double-skinned aerofoils that inflate with the wind flowing in at the leading edge - they look a bit like small paragliders. The kites for pulling ships are probably a similar design. My 5.5 will pick me up off the ground if the wind goes over 12mph, and that's just holding it static in the sky - if you fly it around in a figure-of-eight the pull increases several times over. On a bumpy field it will pull me in a buggy at 30mph+. I've never had it on a beach, but I hear people get up to 60mph.

Using them on boats is not a new idea, but it sounds like they've vastly improved the control system. Here's some more basic ones:
http://www.dcss.org/speedsl/
http://www.kiteship.com/

[skeptik]

they look a bit like small paragliders. The kites for pulling ships are probably a similar design.

Correct. Streaming video (Windows Media) of the prototype system in use is available on the Skysails website linked above.

[SherryMayo]

I go wind surfing myself but have watched with amusement as novice kitesurfers get dragged up the beach (and in one unfortunate case into a fishing boat) by an unexpected gust of wind. Those kites certainly have plenty of pull.

[skeptik]

Shipping company Beluga Shipping GmbH purchases the first SkySails system



[Taken from the latest press release]

A corresponding sales contract has been signed between the Bremen-based shipping company Beluga and Hamburg?s manufacturer SkySails.

Thus, Beluga Shipping is the first shipping company worldwide to equip a ship with the towing kite propulsion system. Using this new technology ships can save up to 50% fuel costs and at the same time avoid extraordinarily high amounts of climate-damaging emissions.

?The Skysails technology is ready for market entry exactly at the right time?, confirms captain and managing partner of the Beluga Group, Bremen, Niels Stolbergs (45). ?the rising and continuously high price of oil is a matter that ship owners are already dealing with in order to be competitive in the present and future market. Furthermore, significantly tightened emission regulations, through which increasing costs will accrue, are being put into place. Offshore wind energy is an unbeatable cost-effective propulsion source available in large quantities, and we expect to gain a considerable competitive advantage by using the innovative SkySails system as a pioneer in this field. We are convinced that the SkySails system will revolutionise the cargo shipping industry.?

Following five years of development the first sale of a SkySails system is SkySails biggest success so far. ?In the past year, despite heavy reservations we have proven that the SkySails technology is functioning. The completion of a first sales contract in the development period demonstrates the high interest of ship owners in the SkySails system. The utilisation of wind energy is inevitably cheaper than the combustion of expensive and continuously declining oil. Our costumers can thus, by using the SkySails technology, reduce both costs and emissions simultaneously. In that way, economic and ecological advantages are exemplary linked?, says SkySails managing partner Stephan Wrage (33).

The SkySails towing kite system ?SKS 160? will be installed, after delivery of the 140m long ship new build, on board of the multipurpose-heavy cargo freighter MS ?Beluga SkySails?. In 2007 the worldwide first demonstration cruises of the new propulsion system will take place. With the MS ?Beluga SkySails? proof of the productive efficiency, and thus the economic efficiency of the system will be provided. From 2008 the first SkySails system for cargo ships will be deliverable regularly.

Avoid emission

According to a study from the University of Delaware (USA), the world trade fleet consumes approx. 289 million tons of fuel or 2 times more than Ger-many (approx. 125 million tons). Emissions of cargo ships belong to the global main causers of climate damaging gases, since they run on cheap and extremely sulphurous fuel oil. Experts from Lloyd?s Register Quality Assurance (London) estimate that shipping traffic, with a total of 10 million tons per year, is responsible for over 7% of the total worldwide output of sulphur dioxide. The United Nations have meanwhile reacted: According to the most recent regulations of the ?International Maritime Organisation? (IMO, MARPOL 73/78, Annex VI) as well as EU regulations shipping companies have to considerably reduce toxic emissions of their ships in future. By consistently using the SkySails technology worldwide it would be possible to save over 146 million tons CO2, this equals approx. 15% of the CO2 emission of Germany.

Financing

The development of resource efficient technologies is one of the growth markets of the future. In the first quarter of 2006 SkySails is starting its 3rd and final round financing until readiness for market entry with the exclusive fi-nancing partner, the Oltmann Gruppe from Leer.

The Oltmann Gruppe focuses on the development of resource efficient technologies. Under their management a total of 8.05 million euros will be raised for the SkySails project by strategic, institutional and private partners. With the funds from 3rd round financing SkySails system for cargo ships will be developed in readiness for the start of production by the end of 2008. In parallel, the sales and service network as well as the production capacities and logistics network will be established.

About Beluga

Bremen?s shipping company Beluga Shipping GmbH was established in 1995 by Master Mariner Niels Stolberg. In 2005 the Beluga Group employed 120 people in Bremen and another 30 in international branch offices, such as Rotterdam, Houston, Shanghai, Beijing and S?o Paulo. Beluga manages and operates a fleet of 28 multipurpose-heavy lift-cargo vessels and is well- known for high flexibility in the project and heavy lift sector as well as rapid growth and expansion. Business activities of the Beluga Group comprise chartering, operating and ship management as well as project development and transport solutions for complex heavy lift and project cargo shipments worldwide.

http://www.skysails.info/index.php?L=1