{"id":143721,"date":"2024-10-25T16:02:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T06:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcargonews.com\/?p=51743"},"modified":"2024-10-25T16:02:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T06:02:01","slug":"sail-away-under-wind-power-at-southampton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=143721","title":{"rendered":"Sail away under wind power at Southampton"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

A radical new wind power system is on trial in the waters around Great Britain. Two hundred years ago, these islands produced the most advanced sailing ships in the world. Now, that pioneering spirit is evoked in a new technology that borrows from that past. Down at Southampton Docks, a new take on sailing is taking shape, and it’s on the deck of a very modern nuclear transport ship.<\/p>\n

It’s all about wind power. There\u2019s no atomic energy involved, but Nuclear Transport Solutions has leased one of their vessels to another cutting edge technology enterprise. Smart Green Shipping plans to bring a breath of fresh air to maritime logistics. On board the specialist nuclear fuel carrier, they have installed something radical. If you call it a canvas, you\u2019ll be thrown overboard, and the last thing you\u2019ll see is the shining, rigid, aerodynamically elegant \u201cFastRig wingsail\u201d. It doesn\u2019t billow in the breeze.<\/p>\n

Adaptive technology<\/h2>\n

The Pacific Grebe is one of three purpose-built 5000-tonne cargo vessels. It\u2019s part of the fleet of Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited, part of UK government\u2019s Nuclear Transport Solutions<\/a>, the world’s most experienced shipper of nuclear cargoes. However, the ship is on non-nuclear secondment to Smart Green Shipping (SGS). The renewable marine technology specialists are putting their “FastRig wingsail” through open sea trials in the coastal waters of the UK.<\/p>\n

SGS say the innovative technology uses wind power to help propel the ship, potentially reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 30% on a full commercial installation. The wingsail is a lightweight, retractable solution which uses sensors and automated technology to adapt to changing weather conditions, allowing it to deploy and retract as necessary to ensure both fuel efficiency and safety. It’s a rigid sail, with no rigging involved, and a clever set of sensors to help trim the aerodynamics of the unit, similar to the trim on an aeronautical wing.<\/p>\n

Installed on any ship<\/h2>\n

The collaboration between NTS and SGS marks the first time a system like this has been installed on a specialist ship of this kind. These are the world’s first sea trials of the FastRig wingsail and, so far, it’s been plain sailing. “We\u2019re delighted to work in partnership with NTS in pioneering the world first sea trials of FastRig,\u201d said Diane Gilpin, CEO of Smart Green Shipping. \u201cTheir ships demand the very highest safety standards and our collaboration shows FastRigs can be installed on any ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
At sea with the FastRig wingsail in active service on board the Pacific Grebe. SGS make the point that if their technology can be deployed on board a rigorously secure nuclear transport vessel, it can be deployed anywhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Watching from the shore, Solent Stevedores, who provide services throughout the port, have been keen observers of the initial trials.\u201cDevelopments like this can only be good news for the industry,\u201d said Clive Thomas, their Commercial Director. \u201cOur region is very active in working towards low carbon solutions. As a member of The Solent Cluster working alongside organisations in the Solent towards decarbonising the region, we hope to see more of this type of innovation coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Change the way all ships sail<\/h2>\n

Sea trials are already underway. Pacific Grebe has set the FastRig sailwing for a voyage around Great Britain. The ship will be calling at Scottish ports next week to showcase the technology to investors and stakeholders. SGS already has backing from the Scottish government, which is pursuing an aggressive decarbonisation programme of its own.<\/p>\n

Harnessing natural resources for propulsion<\/a> is a big-ticket item for the future of maritime operations. However, Pete Buchan, NTS\u2019s Managing Director of Shipping, recognised that the technology is still at the trial stage. \u201cIt\u2019s the first real-world application of this wing and could change the way all ships sail, drastically reducing emissions and fuel usage across the industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ship from Britain\u2019s fleet of nuclear fuel transporters has been chartered to help develop another clean energy source – wind power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13013,2305,14115,1732,471,2708,14116,14117,14118,12154,13420,14119,2921,1684,85,14120],"tags":[12159],"class_list":["post-143721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breakbulk-general-cargo","category-environment","category-fastrig","category-multimodal","category-news","category-nuclear-transport-solutions","category-pacific-grebe","category-pntl","category-sgs","category-shipping-logistics","category-shortsea-shipping","category-smart-green-shipping","category-solent-stevedores","category-southampton","category-uk","category-wingsail","tag-world-cargo-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143812,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143721\/revisions\/143812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}