Wind propulsion: the solution to decarbonisation?

As a follow on to his presentation ‘Developments in wind propulsion technology – the solution to decarbonisation?’, GT Green Technologies director George Thompson, discusses the status of wind propulsion technology, level of adoption and challenges of fitting systems on different types of vessels.

During his presentation at Maritime Air Pollution & Fuel Technologies Americas 2022, Mr Thompson looked at the business case for wind propulsion, estimated fuel savings and payback periods. One of the challenges shipowners face when utilising wind propulsion systems is determining when they should be deployed and when they should be retracted.

“Green water loading, you get quite high pressures because of the density of water,” says Mr Thompson. “It depends on the exact case but some of the developers are going down the route of leaving their device upright in these extreme cases but feathering them, so they produce minimum lift and produce only a little bit of drag.”