Norsepower teams with climate tech start-up Syroco

Aiming to optimize wind propulsion efficiency, rotor sail pioneer Norsepower is collaborating with Marseille-based climate tech start-up Syroco to deliver innovative energy efficiency solutions for merchant vessels, reducing fuel consumption, minimizing carbon emissions, and accurately measuring the savings enabled by Norsepower rotor sails. The two companies say that the joint deployment of Norsepower and Syroco solutions onboard Socatra’s tanker Alcyone demonstrates how combining wind propulsion with cutting-edge digital technologies can help shipowners overcome operational complexities and maximize the benefits of wind propulsion. Vessels with rotor sails require advanced calculations to optimize routes, balancing wind propulsion with other factors such as waves and currents. Their integration with AI-driven platforms provides ship operators with reliable, real-time insights into how to maximise efficiency, savings, and sustainability.

This partnership has already proven successful onboard several vessels, including the Alcyone. Syroco’s performance evaluation technology has validated the effectiveness of Norsepower rotor sails, confirming fuel savings of up to 21% per voyage. By combining Norsepower’s wind propulsion systems with Syroco’s weather routing technology, these savings are amplified, with initial results revealing voyages where combining the technologies can as much as double the performance. “Our collaboration with Syroco is an important step forward in optimizing the potential of wind propulsion,” said Norsepower CCO Jarkko Väinämö. “By accurately validating the performance of Norsepower rotor sails and demonstrating how advanced AI can amplify their benefits, we are driving significant progress in sustainable shipping. Together, we are proving that cleaner, more efficient shipping is not only achievable but measurable.”Syroco combines weather and sea data with advanced naval architecture principles and IoT data collected from onboard systems to create a digital twin of each vessel. This virtual representation of the ship accounts for key characteristics such as hull design, windage, appendages, propulsion systems, and the most accurate models of the Norsepower rotor sails. This digital twin enables vessel operators to optimise routes in real-time, considering wind propulsion, waves, swell, currents, arrival times, safety constraints, and cargo-specific parameters.

“By integrating Norsepower Rotor Sails with digital twin models, the Syroco platform helps the crew obtain the most optimized routing at any time, and essentially amplifies the effect of wind assistance,” said Syroco cofounder and CEO Alex Caizergues. “This collaboration showcases the great potential of combining innovative technologies to meet the maritime industry’s decarbonization goals.” “Syroco also provides a precise evaluation of the contribution of wind propulsion to fuel savings and emissions reductions,” he continued. “The user-friendly interface not only enables vessel operators to make data-driven decisions but also to quantify the impact of these decision. With further joint deployments upcoming, this success highlights the importance of integrating complementary technologies to meet the maritime sector’s growing regulatory demands and climate commitments. Norsepower and Syroco continue to pave the way for innovative, sustainable shipping solutions, proving that effective and verifiable decarbonization is not a thing of the future, but already available today.”