MOL and J-Power retrofit coal carrier with wind-assisted propulsion system

Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and power generation company Electric Power Development (J-Power) have retrofitted a coal carrier with a wind-assisted propulsion system (WAPS).

IMAGE: Coal carrier Kurotakisan Maru III equipped with the hard-sail system. MOL

The vessel, Kurotakisan Maru III, has been equipped with a hard-sail system that converts wind energy into propulsive force using telescoping sails than can be extended vertically. The system has been jointly developed by MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding.

The vessel supports J-Power operations.

The installation marks the world’s first retrofit of a hard-sail wind propulsion system on a vessel already in service, MOL said. It is the company’s third vessel fitted with the system, following the coal carrier Shofu Maru and the 64,000-dwt bulk carrier Green Winds.

Kurotakisan Maru III berthed at the Tachibanawan Thermal Power Station in Tokushima on 13 April and at the Ishikawa coal-fired power station in Okinawa on 17 April.

Interest in wind-assisted propulsion is gaining pace as shipowners look to improve efficiency and reduce emissions. Netherlands-based Econowind plans to install a 30-metre suction wing system on a vessel operated by Boomsma Shipping later this year.

Earlier this month, HGK Shipping, part of Germany’s logistics group HGK, also agreed with Econowind to install WAPS on its coastal vessel Amadeus Titanium.

By Tuhin Roy

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