Mitsubishi Bulker set to be first with WindWings

Two WindWings will be delivered by Yara Marine Technologies and installed on the five-year-old, 80,962 dwt bulk carrier Pyxis Ocean­. One of the wings was funded by the European Union as part of EU Horizon 2020 Project CHEK, dedicated to demonstrating solutions for decarbonising international shipping.

The installation, anticipated for the beginning of 2023, comes as the next step in a collaboration launched in 2019 between Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation's MC Shipping Ltd. Singapore Branch to increase energy savings and reduce emissions from international shipping.

“The pressure is on the ship owning and chartering community to take proactive and material action to tackle the immediate and uprising challenges towards the energy transition on its existing vessels, and fast,” said Takafumi Oka, General Manager, Ship Dept. of Mitsubishi Corporation.

“Our partnership with Cargill demonstrates the collaborative effort that is required to align strategic objectives among the stakeholders and ensure the global fleet can keep pace with evolving demands to reduce the environmental impact of our industry. It has been an exciting journey with multinational counterparties such as Cargill, BAR Tech, Yara Marine, DNV and engineering company Cybermarine to overcome the challenges together and make this happen, and we hope to see many of such collaborations in our maritime industry to scale the solutions,” said Takafumi.

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“Cargill and MC Shipping are working together to bridge the gap between shipowner and charterer, with a desire to implement technologies that will benefit not just both parties, but the industry and the planet at large,” said Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill’s Ocean Transportation division.

“Reductions in fuel consumption via the exploitation of wind energy as a free fuel generates the two-fold benefits of lower fuel costs and lower emissions, propelling the global fleet affordably on its track to decarbonisation. With projected reductions in average fuel consumption of up to 30% for a full-scale deployment, we anticipate that WindWings will significantly outperform its contemporaries in the wind propulsion arena,” said John Cooper, CEO of Bar Technology.

 “The installation of two Windwings onboard Pyxis Ocean is significant being the first and will be the first of many”. says Thomas Koniordos, CEO of Yara Marine.