Norsepower installs tiltable rotor sails on Sea-Cargo ro-roNorsepower installs tiltable rotor sails on Sea-Cargo ro-ro

Norsepower, provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, said the installation heralds the world’s first tiltable Rotor Sail, showcasing that vesssels that have to negotiate height restricted routes can benefit from this fuel and emissions saving solution.

The system 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.

The roro is the 12,251-gt SC Connector operated by Sea-Cargo. The ship sails between Western Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Poland, as well as transits under multiple bridges and powerlines, requiring adaption of the Rotor Sails to tilt to almost horizontal when required.

“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 (greenhouse gas) compliance, while ensuring significant emissions, and fuel reductions to a variety of vessel profiles today,” commented Tuomas Riski, ceo of Norsepower.

As shipping transitions towards decarbonisation and meeting IMO’s targets of 2030 and 2050, the maritime transport industry is looking for proven solutions to ensure emissions reductions. Harnessing wind is considered a viable solution to reduce emissions and fuel consumption.

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Ole Saevild, managing director of Sea-Cargo, said: “We are focussing on utilising 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.”