The world’s first cargo vessels that helped launch the global international shipping trade were powered by their massive sails and the wind at their backs. Now, as the sector looks to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels, could we see a return to wind-powered ships?
While the returns of towering masts and huge, white sails is a near-certain impossibility, technology is being developed to suck in, pressurise and eject air to propel ships forward.
University of Miami College of Engineering Professor GeChang Zha believes this return – albeit a modernised version – to wind-thrusted ships could be a key pillar in decarbonising the shipping industry.
“What’s old is new again,” Zha says. “With the technological advancements of today, wind-assisted propulsion is an efficient alternative to diesel engines.
“The major advantage is its environmentally friendly – an effective way to decarbonise the shipping industry that is responsible for about three per cent of global greenhouse gases.
“The shipping industry has a tendency to resist change because diesel engines are so powerful, but with pressure mounting – either willingly or unwillingly – it will have to change.”
The technology is already in use on about 30 cargo ships out of the global fleet of approximately 60,000. They deploy rigid sails made of aluminium, fibreglass and carbon fibre that operate under minimum power from a ship’s engines.
Zha’s alternative are stacks of cylinders that are several stories high that can be lowered to allow ships to pass beneath bridges and navigate in and out of ports.
The London-based International Windship Association expects those 30 wind-propelled ships to increase to 11,000 by the end of the current decade, but Zha believes his non-rotating cylinders would be “much more efficient” and “capable of achieving greater thrust”.
“With about 90 per cent of the world’s trade travelling by ship, this technology is a ‘windfall’ of an idea,” he says.”
Read more ATN:
ATA’s trip of a lifetime up for grabs again
Tackling truckies’ mental health from the inside out
Trio of appointments made to National Transport Commission