Old-School Wind Power Is Back for Cargo Shipping

Major players in maritime shipping, looking for ways to cut carbon emissions and save on fuel, are trying out new ways to use old-fashioned wind power. But the devices being tested on some bulk freighters are far from old-fashioned—more like high-tech airplane wings than the canvas sails that once powered schooners and sloops.

One version is the “WindWings" device developed by the Minneapolis-based agricultural giant Cargill and BAR Technologies, a U.K.-based company that has designed boats and advanced sails for the America’s Cup race. The automated sails, built by Norway’s Yara Marine Technologies and designed to be used with existing engines, were retrofitted onto a ship called the Pyxis Ocean. It recently sailed its first voyage helped by the wind, from dry dock in Shanghai, China to the Port of Singapore; then on to Paranaguá, Brazil; and finally to the Port of Gdynia in Poland. It’s now on its second route.

Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill Ocean Transportation—the division responsible for operating the hundreds of ships that make up the company’s maritime shipping fleet—talked with the Journal’s Future of Everything podcast about adding wind into the mix for cargo shipping.

Where did the idea for using wind-assist on your cargo ships come from?

We actually started experimenting with wind more than 10 years ago. We tried with kites, and it was an interesting exercise, which didn’t work for a host of reasons.

We decided to look at wind again because it makes a lot of sense, right? It’s a free fuel, in the end of the day. We also felt that because we tried before and it didn’t work, that shouldn’t be a reason not to try again.

Why did you start looking at wind that first time?

We weren’t really looking so much at the decarbonization angle. It was more of an efficiency kind of play: If we can save a couple of tons of fuel, that actually has a payback that makes economic sense. So why don’t we just try? That is the beauty of wind, because it doesn’t only save carbon, but it also saves fuel.

How was the “second take" on wind propulsion pitched to you?

The way that BAR pitched it was very different. They came with a can-do attitude from a sports background, because they had experience in America’s Cup racing.

What we were really impressed with was the big-data capability they had of modeling what we could do. That gave us the confidence that this was just not anecdotal.

Sailing in the America’s Cup is a very different thing from shipping thousands of tons of goods across the ocean. Were you skeptical?

We had to overcome some quite interesting hurdles. One of them was how are you going to operate with a [123-foot-tall] sail in front of you? How does that work with visibility? So we had to innovate around that and we came to the solution on cameras.

You also need to discharge and load the ship. So how are you going to operate these ships in port? We had to make these sails foldable because otherwise we couldn’t load the ship.

Has Cargill chartered the Pyxis Ocean for a long time, even before she got this retrofit?

Yes, we have a long-term relationship with [shipowner Mitsubishi Corp.], and the Pyxis was one of the ships that we had in our fleet already. It’s interesting that we’re putting a very new technology on a ship that’s not really built for it. And that’s why, if you look at the future, we think that if you have a ship that is from the start actually designed for wind, you probably are going to get even better results.

Now that the ship has voyaged with these high-tech sails, what have you learned?

We need time to come up with firm conclusions. The weather is variable. So we had a few days where she was performing extremely well and far beyond our expectations. We also had a few days when there was simply no wind. But what we’ve seen initially is promising.

What are some of the other challenges so far?

We had a couple of issues finding a port that was willing to accept it. If something in shipping is nonstandard, then you need to push a little bit harder because this industry is very much used to standardization.

Do you have a sense of how much fuel the ship has saved from using the wind wings?

It’s difficult to put the number on the relatively short time that we’ve been sailing. The expectation with two sails that we have is it should save around 20%. If you optimize for wind, you put a third one and you optimize a bit more, you should be able to get to 30%.

But the first thing that we’re testing is, is it actually technically working? Are the sails actually able to go up and down? So I think we crossed that hurdle and that box is checked.

What’s the next step then?

Probably the main effort will be on how can we do this in a way that it’s going to be cheaper on the installation. Are there ways to spend less time in port to do the retrofit? In the end of the day, if we want to scale this, it has to get cheaper over time.

How much did it cost to do the retrofit?

I think what we really should be looking at is what is the payback time? How many years does it take to get your investment back?

The industry will have to move to lower-carbon fuels like green methanol or green ammonia, which are fuels that are probably three or four times more expensive. It also means your payback is going to be three, four times faster if you are actually combining it with those technologies. So that is something that we’re keeping an eye on, and I think that is the next real big step.

Where do you see this technology going in the next five to 10 years?

The reality is, this is a technology that works on certain types of ships. If you have a container [ship] line where you have a bunch of containers already sitting in the way, it’s very difficult for the wind to actually be gaining any additional fuel saving.

You also need trade routes where you are sailing a lot, because if you make an expensive investment in the installation and you’re sitting in port all the time, you’re not going to get the savings. On top of that, you need to be in trade routes where there’s actually wind. So this is a technology that I think isn’t suitable for every single ship on the water.

I’m sure there’s new technology being developed as we speak. Because, in the end of the day, wind is the free fuel, and shame on us if we’re not going to try to get the best out of that.