Photo: Lieven Van Assche
Two years ago, we posted about the delivery of the E-Ship 1, a ship built for Enercon, a German producer of wind turbines. The ship is intended to demonstrate energy saving technology as well as to deliver Enercon wind turbine assemblies to customers. The most unusual aspect of the ship are the four vertical columns, installed port and starboard on the bow and stern, which have been described as looking like four table legs sticking up into the air. These columns, 27 meters tall and 4 meters in diameter, are Flettner rotors. Making use of the Magnus effect, the rotors spin at high speeds and develop lift as the wind blows across them, creating, in essence, a sailing ship without sails.
One obvious advantage to the E-Ship 1 design is that rotors do not interfere with cargo handling. The ship has deck cranes and hatches as well as a stern ramp to allow either lift-on/lift off or roll-on/roll-off operations. The ship is by no means emission free. It is powered by nine Mitsubishi marine diesel engines. Exhaust gas turbines drive the rotors.
After two years service, how much fuel have the Flettnor rotors saved? The Enercon engineers are still not quoting a figure, though there are references to hoped for potential savings of between 30-40%.