Window till 2026 to develop training standards for wind propulsion

When it comes to operating ships with wind assisted propulsion such as rotor and suction sails the number of vessels and range of experience is currently quite small. Moderating a session at Seatrade Maritime Crew Connect Global last week on wind propulsion show of hands revealed only a couple of people in the audience had experience of such vessels. It is however a growing market with wind assisted propulsion offering clear cuts in fuel usage and emissions without questions as to how green it really is on a well to wake basis as is seen with other alternative fuels. For a retrofitted ship fuel reductions range from 5% to 20%, and possibly up to 30%. “You can’t actually see it, so it’s transparent,” quipped Gavin Allwright, Secretary of the International Windship Association.

On more serious note Allwright explained how the market is developing, “So, the sector is growing, currently we have 53 large vessels, over 400 gt installed with some form of wind propulsion, either as wind assisted, and four of those are actually primary wind, which means over 50% of the power being delivered by wind.” This equates to around 4 million dwt of tonnage currently in operation with some kind of wind propulsion covering all areas of shipping. The highest take up rate has been in the bulk carrier segment with ships including the very largest in the form of Valemaxes. Over the next three years there are around another 200 systems due to be fitted, and this figure could increase with retrofits on existing vessels. While the market is starting standards relating to training and operation are in their infancy. Most of the systems feature a fairly high degree of automation but this not mean that no training is required of the crew.

Capt John Lloyd, Chief Executive Officer of The Nautical Institute said, that while mariners had proved themselves adaptable and versatile over hundreds of years, “Of course when we put a major installation on the deck, we're going to change the uh, center of gravity of the effect of wind in different conditions.” Areas that could be impacted include the positioning of harbour tugs, line of sight, and static and dynamic stability. “I think we're on a learning journey, that we need to do some more research and make sure that we've covered those bases properly,” he said. 

Allwright echoed this saying that they had multiple reference points in each sector and they were getting operational data from these vessels and feeding it back into digital twins and this will feed back into training and standards. “You have no system is going on board a vessel without some training, but that training is not standardised amongst the providers. So that's the next step.” This would also apply to standards for verification and effects of the systems on vessels.

“We're identifying an inflection point in the market around 2026 where the market really starts to take over. So, we've got to use this window of the next 12 to 18 months to really lock down those standards and make sure that we're robust going forward,” Allwright said.