The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has conducted a fleet wide analysis of the potential reduction in fuel use from wind propulsion for the NGO Seas At Risk. The headline figures are strong from 6.3-9.4%, with world fleet adoption.
Click here to access the full study.
However, there are key points made which we must bear in mind to fully unleash the power of the wind.
📈 Conservative – “While these findings show meaningful fuel savings from wind propulsion, the results remain conservative. They reflect a ‘plug and go’ scenario: retrofitting today’s suitable fleet with wind propulsion systems under current operational practices, with no design
optimisation for newbuilds, weather routing, slow steaming, or primary wind design configurations.”
As the study goes on to say, this integrated approach will significantly boost the impact and optimise the use of wind propulsion systems across the board.
⛓️ Limited scope – As with any study, there are always limitations and scope parameters. In this one, 25 categories of shipping, amounting to 60% of emissions were used. New build primary wind vessels are not reflected and container ships are also not included, which have significant potential.
🔮 Future innovation – of course, this study is a snapshot, an innovation window in time. Tracking the future pathway of innovation is almost impossible. However, we are already seeing wind systems power increasing substantially at the same time as the scaling and unit costs are coming down, tracking similar trajectories as offshore wind turbines for example example. The retrofit options of today are not the only options for tomorrow and certainly not the end game for the coming decades.
As the report states, wind propulsion has great potential in the mid- to long-term but also: “It directly supports the IMO’s commitment to achieve at least 5%, striving for 10%, uptake of zero or near-zero emission technologies, fuels and energy sources by 2030 and it is one of the very few mature solutions capable of delivering a share of this near-term requirement.”
The International Windship Association (IWSA) welcomes this well crafted report and we look forward to subsequent reports building futher on this analysis.
