MS Beluga SkySails

One of the latest innovations by the heavy cargo ship market to address increasing fuel prices has been a return to wind power.

The new heavy lift carrier MS Beluga Skysails will use towing kite propulsion as part of its propulsion systems.

The ship was launched in December 2007, and following early sea trials in the North Sea in January 2008, where the SkySail system was tested, the vessel embarked on its maiden voyage from Bremerhaven, Columbuskaje to Guanta, Venezuela.

The maiden voyage will see components for a particle board factory carried across the Atlantic for DHL Global Forwarding, which is delivering the factory in eight sections for a housing project in Venezuela.

On route, the SkySail system will receive a thorough testing under stringent sea conditions to determine how much fuel can be saved and how efficient the system is (the Skysail can provide 5t of tractive force at low wind).

CONSTRUCTION

The ship was constructed between 2006 and 2007 in the Volharding Shipyards in Harlinghen in the Netherlands and is owned by the Beluga Group (Beluga Fleet Management GmbH).

The ship is 132m long with a deadweight 9,821t, a beam of 15.8m, a draft of 7.73m, an air draft of 37.50m to keel (29.77m +7.73m draft) and a cruising operational speed of 15.5kt.

The ship has two holds and a cargo capacity of 474 TEU (alternative 228 FEU and 18 TEU) with 20 reefer plugs. The hold form is box-shaped and double-skinned with both being fully open hatch. The MAK 8M32 diesel engines have an output of 3,840kW. There is one bow thruster of 500kVA and the rudder is a freehanging balance type.

There is a shaft generator of 813kVA, two diesel generators of 315kW, and one diesel emergency generator of 70kW. There are tanks for 3,540m³ of ballast water, 73.1m³ of fresh water and 621.7m³ of heavy fuel oil.

SKYSAIL

The SkySail system is being developed by SkySails GmbH and Co KG. The Beluga Sky Sails has been equipped with a 160m² sail similar to a paragliding sail. The area of the ‘kite’ can be increased to 320m² if required for even more pulling power.

The computer controlled ‘kite’ is attached to the ship by a rope system and is deployed from an automatic pod. The system can control the kite at heights between 100m and 500m to maximise the benefit of the wind. Sky Sails has calculated that an average ship's fuel costs could be reduced by between 10% and 50% depending on the prevailing wind conditions.

With the price of oil so high, an average 87m cargo ship could save nearly €300,000 a year. The system can be potentially retrofitted to any ship and SkySails estimates the potential market to be 40,000 ships over the period up to 2013.

The company expects to install the system on 400 ships. The global reduction of carbon dioxide from shipping could come to 146 million tons per year.