Stena launches wind-powered RoRo ferry
Stena presents the concept of the Stena Futuro, a 240-metre RoRo ship with wing sails for transporting trailers and cars. The design promises 20% less energy consumption: double the current standard.
The hull and superstructure are optimised to make the most efficient use of cargo space. At the same time, low weight and optimised hydro and aerodynamics are central to achieving low fuel consumption. The low and streamlined design of the Stena Futuro is the result of these ambitions.
Besides the ship’s design, to further reduce its carbon footprint, the Stena Futuro will be equipped with hybrid propulsion; low-fuel consumption batteries and engines capable of running on different fuels. The battery system will allow the ship to partially run solely on electricity, for example when entering and leaving ports. Solar panels will also contribute to the ship’s electricity needs.
Air lubrication and heat recovery
The hull of the Stena Futuro will also be equipped with an air lubrication system. This system releases tiny air bubbles below the waterline to reduce friction between the ship and the water.
A waste heat recovery system allows the hot exhaust gases from the ship’s engines to be reused for other onboard heating needs and for generating electricity.
Wing sails
The concept for the Stena Futuro includes four 40-metre-high wing sails, which can be retracted when needed – for example, when passing under a bridge. Recently, Stena’s developers, together with the Swedish research institute RISE, conducted tests and simulations of the use of the sails to document both the energy savings and the impact of the sails on the ship’s manoeuvrability and safety.
The tests showed that Stena Futuro’s sails can potentially deliver up to 15 per cent fuel savings. ‘We also confirmed that the ship meets all requirements for stability and manoeuvrability in scenarios such as sudden wind shifts or rapid course changes,’ said Nicolas Bathfield, project manager at Stena Teknik.
No final plan yet
The ship design will play an important role in Stena Line’s future tonnage planning. At the moment, there is no final plan for the production of the Stena Futuro.
Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line, said: ‘We aim to lead our industry in achieving global climate goals. We work on this every day in our current operations, but we also need to be at the forefront of developing tomorrow’s ships. The Stena Futuro concept is an important step in that direction.’
Source: an article by Mariska Buitendijk in SWZ-Maritime.
Image: Stena.
Editor’s note:
The news is that instead of the usual 10% fuel reduction, a 20% reduction is announced with this design. However, the sails alone are not responsible for this doubling: they provide at most 15%, with the rest coming from additional technologies. On the yardstick from ‘wind-assisted’ to ‘wind-powered’, this concept does not yet score very high. It seems that shipping companies are not yet willing to accept a ship design that carries more sail and therefore requires more stabilisers and drift control in strong winds. More and more designs with a larger sail share do appear, but Stena CEO Mårtensson’s statements are still quite questionable; given the state of affairs, it does not yet take much to ‘lead as a market leader’.
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