HELSINKI – Norsepower announced Wednesday that it has installed two 35-meter rotor sails aboard a ro/ro operated by Sea-Cargo, a shipowner in the North Sea market. This installation marks the world’s first tiltable Rotor Sail, showcasing that vessels that have to negotiate height restricted routes can benefit from this fuel and emissions-saving solution.
According to the analysis conducted by Norsepower and Sea-Cargo, the installation – on board the SC Connector, a 12,251 gross tonne (GT) sidedoor Ro-Ro – can achieve a fuel consumption, fuel cost and carbon emission reduction of up to 25%. In good wind conditions, the sailing vessel will maintain regular service speed by sail alone.
SC Connector, which sails between Western Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and, also, Sweden and Poland, transit under multiple bridges and power lines, requiring adaptation of the Rotor Sails to tilt to almost horizontal when required.
Tuomas Riski, CEO, Norsepower, said: “Completing the installation has been extremely rewarding, as it reflects how, in taking a collaborative approach with a customer, we can innovate to create solutions that allow Rotor Sails to benefit almost any vessel type or trading route. As we get closer to 2030 IMO targets, we are seeing our technology gaining momentum – with the market seeing the flexibility we can provide to suit different vessel requirements. This installation demonstrates the technology can go a long way to future proofing IMO GHG compliance, while ensuring significant emissions, and fuel reductions to a variety of vessel profiles today.”
Ole Sævild, Managing Director, SEA-CARGO, added: “We are focussing on utilizing available renewable energy and using it for direct propulsion to design more environmentally friendly vessels. The Rotor Sail technology has been proven in the market for a while, but the size is unique for our project. The sails are far more efficient than conventional sails of the same size and the tilting function is essential to our voyage routes. Given the estimated emissions savings, we will use our experience of this full-scale project, and proceed to develop it further for other vessels in our fleet.”
The Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution is the first third party verified and commercially operational auxiliary wind propulsion technology for the global maritime industry. The solution is fully automated and detects whenever the wind is strong enough to deliver fuel and emission savings, at which point the Rotor Sails start automatically.
Photo credit: Artur Sylerstrzak/SC Connector
