Mar 14, 2017
Curbs on fuel oil put wind in sails of rotor technology
Is the world ready for wind-powered oil tankers? Royal Dutch Shell and Maersk shipping group are about to find out, as they team up to fit a tanker with two "Rotor sails" to see if the futuristic devices can make a serious dent in fuel bills. Groups such as Maersk have eyed several ideas to cut marine fuel use over the years, from solar-powered sails to kites that tow a vessel. "That's one of the market drivers making this kind of wind-propulsion technology a lot more interesting," said Tuomas Riski, chief executive of Norsepower, a Finnish company building the rotor sails for the Maersk tanker. The UK Energy Technologies Institute, a government-funded research group, is footing most of the £3.5m bill for the project in the belief that rotor sails are one of the few fuel-saving technologies to offer double-digit percentage improvements. The rotor sails are due to be installed in the first half of 2018 and tested until the end of 2019.
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