Optimise wind drive diesel-electric

In ‘pure’ sailing freighters, speed is usually not an issue, but modern shipping also wants just-in-time delivery. Together, ABB and Oceanwings aim to optimise speed by cleverly combining wind and diesel-electric propulsion.

French propulsion wing manufacturer OceanWings recently entered into a strategic partnership with two major industrial groups: Swiss-Swedish engineering group ABB and Volkswagen’s subsidiary Everllence (formerly MAN Energy Solutions), based in Augsburg, Germany. The aim is to integrate sail propulsion into an optimised propulsion concept called DFE+ (variable-speed diesel-electric).

Optimising with sail propulsion

“Most commercial vessels have one propeller shaft and a two-stroke engine with optimum efficiency at a certain speed. With the new energy sources, the challenge is to translate all this into significant fuel savings. If sail propulsion takes the engine outside its optimum efficiency zone, consumption is generally reduced but can be optimised even further. So the goal is to achieve the most favourable result possible by further optimising these margins,” said Romain Grandsart, director of operations at OceanWings.

Fast ships

The partners are first looking at optimising LNG carriers. These are fast ships, sailing between 16 and 19 knots. At this speed, OceanWings wings have the advantage of being particularly efficient at sharp apparent wind angles, as most winds on Earth are between 10 and 20 knots.
The study on the new concept, to be completed during 2026, will look at integration, number of wings, number of potential customers, route analysis, etc. It will also involve looking at “what optimisations need to be made, how all systems should be coordinated to exploit the full potential of sail propulsion” and “bring to market a high-performance concept with the best fuel savings”, explains Romain Grandsart.

Source: Gaël Cogné in Mer et Marine.
Image: Ocean Wings.

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