Background

Wind propulsion can result in substantial savings in fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions. Demonstration projects have shown that savings of 5% to 15% are immediately achievable in average wind conditions without really changing operations and ship design. However, present development projects indicate that by changing design and operations those savings can even be highly increased, getting close to 80% to 90% savings in favourable wind. This is a very interesting prospect for shipping. Wind propulsion can deliver savings that are out of range for other technologies. It can also reduce the operational cost that is inevitably involved with carbon free / neutral fuels.

The question is whether your ships and designs and the (intended) operations are suitable for wind propulsion. The impact that wind propulsion can have is highly dependent on the operational wind climate, the ships speeds, and the type and size of wind propulsion. The latter highly depends on the ship design in terms of deck lay-out, heel stability, maximum air draught, yaw balance and capability of the propulsion installation to run at low loads.

WIND PROPULSION SERVICES

To decide whether wind propulsion can be applied to your design or ship, we do feasability studies and specific research for optimisation and verification.

The first step to judge whether wind propulsion is interesting for your ship design and operation is to do a feasibility and concept study by experimenting with different device types and arrangements. If wind propulsion is a suitable technique for your ship and operation, the next step is to optimise ship/design and operation and to verify performance, operability and compliance to rules and regulations.

For each design or ship we use a customised approach.

Track record | Research and publications

Contact

Contact person photo

Rogier Eggers

Senior Project Manager

Wind propulsion approach

Quick feasibility and concept study

The first step to judge whether wind propulsion is also relevant for your ship design and operation is to do a feasibility and concept study; experimenting with different device types and arrangements. This study allows to quickly and cost efficiently find out whether and how wind propulsion may help your design. It may be followed up by further design, optimisation and verification studies..

Quick feasibility and concept study

The first step to judge whether wind propulsion is also relevant for your ship design and operation is to do a feasibility and concept study; experimenting with different device types and arrangements. This study allows to quickly and cost efficiently find out whether and how wind propulsion may help your design. It may be followed up by further design, optimisation and verification studies..
MARIN Wind propulsion - Quick Feasibility and Concept Study

Optimisation and verification

If wind propulsion is a suitable technique for your ship and operation, the next step is to optimise ship/design and operation and to verify performance, operability and compliance to rules and regulations.

Optimisation and verification

If wind propulsion is a suitable technique for your ship and operation, the next step is to optimise ship/design and operation and to verify performance, operability and compliance to rules and regulations.
MARIN Wind propulsion - Optimisation and verification

Track record | research & publications

Since 2011 MARIN has been actively engaged to support the (re-) implementation of wind propulsion.

Commercial (public) projects

Collaborative initiatives

In addition we have published a large number of scientific papers on the subject of wind propulsion.

commercial (public) projects

MARIN Wind propulsion commercial projects