Riviera - Wind propulsion returns to commercial vessels

Craig Jallal - Riviera

It has taken a raft of regulatory initiatives, but finally, wind is back on the agenda as a main source of propulsion

Free-to-use wind as a source of energy across vessel types is firmly back on the agenda. The current projects based on wind power fall into two camps: one involves maximising available wind to provide a main source of propulsion.

The second is to use wind to provide propulsive assistance. This is more typical of retrofit installation projects, such as trials undertaken with rotor sails by Finland’s Norsepower. Like the sailing ships of a century ago, the choice of which type of wind power and the propulsive unit depends on the voyage length and frequency of port calls.