Wind works, say big shipowners

At RINA and IWSA’s joint conference on wind propulsion, several shipowners explained the benefits and pitfalls of sailing and spoke about their experiences in adding technology to their fleets.

Perhaps the most discussed programme for decarbonising an entire fleet is that of Norwegian tanker company Odfjell, which decided a decade ago to cut costs. Odfjell equipped one ship with four Bound4Blue suction sails to test the technology. Odfjell project manager Jan Opedal said the payback period is five to 10 years, if you take into account the preparatory work, including cabling, the equipment itself, transport and other factors involved in installation. Interestingly, Opedal added: “For medium-sized shipowners, it is much cheaper to install sails during a five-year dry-docking than to include it in a new-build contract.”

Every new project gets easier

Jesse Bryce, commercial performance manager at Union Maritime, said the company initially found the cost of newbuilds with sails “quite high”. “It was the first time shipyards were installing wind systems and there was a lot of uncertainty, but the manufacturers explained that the manufacturing process is quite predictable and routine.” That helped, and each new project became easier. UK-based Union Maritime operates a fleet of 56 tankers, 11 bulk carriers and three offshore vessels, and has another 34 vessels on order. Union Maritime is also adapting its fleet to wind power.

Cost-effective

Union Maritime had seven newbuildings developed, each with a carrying capacity of 18,000 tonnes. Six of these have already been delivered and another vessel is yet to follow. These ships are equipped with Norsepower rotor sails. Bryce said they were small ships and the Norsepower sails were compact and came out best in simulations: “The cost-benefit ratio was favourable for us.”
The next batch of seven newbuildings will be equipped with BAR Technologies WindWings, rigid sails. “They are very large, very powerful devices and we can put a lot of power on the LR2s,” Bryce said. Union Maritime’s crew initially did not want logos on the rotor sails, but then asked for a small logo “so we can see that it is running”.

Crew had to practice

Odfjell said they were worried about how different ports or pilots would react to the sails, “but it has been very positive,” Opedal said. “I sailed on this ship from Houston to Panama a month ago and I saw the pilot asking the captain all kinds of questions about the sails instead of doing his job and manoeuvring the ship from A to B.”
Opedal added that the crew was also initially reluctant to embrace the new technology. The crew received basic training with sails in dinghies in the Bergen basin so they could feel “what sailing is”. “They were very negative when they arrived at the quay,” Opedal laughed, “Why on earth should I spend my day off sailing this little thing? But when we went to the pub afterwards, they actually found it very rewarding and useful.”

Simulators

Union seafarer crew training was carried out by the Warsash Maritime Academy in the UK, with both the chemical tanker and LR2 ships set up on the academy’s simulators.
Seafarers can try out things on the simulators that you would not be able to do on board a ship, such as what happens when you turn the rotor sails backwards: will it stop the ship faster in an emergency?

Carbon prices

While operators are learning from their experiences of piloting ships with wind-assisted propulsion, their main concern remains commercial viability. They are still looking to the IMO and this year’s MEPC to set carbon prices to shorten the payback period of investments.

Source: an article by Nick Savvides on Seatrade Maritime.
Image: Odfjell

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