Four sustainable transport routes with wind power

TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT), founded in 2011, is launching the first industrial-scale fleet of low-carbon ships. While the shipping industry struggles with decarbonisation, TOWT, together with 30 shippers, aims to disrupt it: a merchant shipping revolution.

In the past year alone, TOWT has collected hundreds of millions of euros in transport orders from 30 companies such as Cémoi (cocoa), Belco (coffee), Ethic Drinks (wine), Longueteau (wine), Drappier (champagne), Boisson Delame (wine) and Molienda Real (raw sugar). However, TOWT can now reveal the main sea routes open to its customers as early as the end of 2022, for an annual transport capacity of about 25,000 tonnes. In addition to cargo transport, TOWT offers a service for dynamic maturation at sea, where wine and spirits are given a unique flavour through the combination of waves, sea air and slow temperature fluctuations, with New York becoming the hub of TOWT’s US operations. Each route is described below:

All products shipped through TOWT are labelled ANEMOS. This label guarantees consumers that the products they buy are shipped aboard sailing ships. Moreover, it allows them to discover online the ship’s route, photos taken during the voyage, weather data, carbon reduction, providing an immersive experience.

The project offers capacity for 250 passengers a year sailing to iconic destinations. TOWT is launching pre-registrations for passengers to sail with it to and from Europe, America or Africa aboard its carbon-free cargo ships. TOWT’s new sailing freighters – Transport à la voile will be able to carry 12 passengers per crossing.

Passengers aboard TOWT’s sailing freighters will be able to enjoy an extraordinary ‘slow travel’ experience. They will be embarked for crossings of two (Le Havre – New York) to several weeks, on silent ships that respect the environment and underwater fauna, and will be in direct contact with a professional and passionate crew of seven sailors plus two or three cadets.

They will sit in the front row and have a view of port manoeuvres, loading and unloading cargoes of cocoa, wine and spirits, coffee, tea, cocoa, etc. They will benefit from comfortable cabins and common areas with services specially adapted to this long maritime adventure: lounge, library, sun deck, etc. “We are delighted to announce to the public that soon four ships will each make four journeys, i.e. 16 trips a year to New York, to deliver in a carbon-free manner hundreds of thousands of European goods ranging from wine and spirits, jams, textiles, cosmetics or more industrial cargoes” said Guillaume Le Grand, CEO of TOWT. “We also hope to announce in the coming months the best US-made goods to be shipped in a CO2-free way on the westbound journey. […] The ANEMOS label allows brands to document the journey of their goods, and thus their origin, in complete transparency. In times when the consumption of coffee, cocoa or champagne is drastically compromised, you have to emphasise the quality, the origin, the ‘terroir’.

You can do that by also valuing transport, if you want to talk about the coffee mountain or the vineyard.” Read this article by Robin Whitlock in Renewable Energy Magazine.

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