In a recent Working Harbor Committee presentation, “Sailing Ships at Work – Past, Present and Future,” we included the E/S Orcelle, a Wallenius Wilhelmsen concept car carrier design, as an example of an innovative design that featured wing sails, as one part of its hybrid propulsion system. While the wing sails, which also include solar cells, are interesting, the overall design is also worth a closer look. The car carrier concept design is intended to produce zero emissions beyond heat and water vapor and to be propelled by fuel cells, wave energy, solar and wind power. The radical hull form also requires no ballast water for stability and provides greater car carrying capacity that conventional ships. First unveiled at the Nordic Pavilion at the World Expo 2005, it is a fascinating design from stem to stern.
Old Salt Blog
a virtual port of call for all those who love the sea , hosted by nautical novelist Rick Spilman
Well well after an eight year absence this has come up again. No doubt it is a ship designers dream in green. The ship is surprisely elegant but I am afraid is a seafarers nightmare. The azipod drive units have not had a good history refer to the record of Carnival Group vessels. Even accepting the premise that CG is a rather sloppy operation with no backups azipods have been less than stellar. The solar panels are what they are and can be depolyed only in fair weather, which makes them somewhat of a gimmick for the green world. Everything has to have solar panels these days it seems. As to those underwater panels one can see them being a real problem. Imagine moderately rough weather with a beam swell and those things trying to go up and down while being twisted in the sea state. The Operating Procedures will be so restrictive to prevent them shearing off as to virtually worthless on ocean passages. This is really an example of green overkill for ship designers to pat themselves on the back on how clever they have been. Perhaps we should send them to sea in this vessel and we seafarers can stay at home !! On might conclude that NAUTICAL LOG does not like the vessels power systems, one would be correct – however elegant the vessel design is.
Good Watch.
It looks like a fax machine!
-Clean Fuel Cells: Yeah Right, just don’t look at where the Hydrogen is manufactured.
Unlike the US, Europe does have substantial renewable energy sources, so it is possible that the production of the hydrogen might not be any dirtier than it use. Time will tell. One thing for sure. The current burning of residual fuel is unsustainable.
Captain, azipods have certainly had their problems. The same could be said of motor ships in the 1860s. Engineering does have a tendency to fix things with enough time. NYK has had solar cells on a car carrier for close to a decade and has reported good results. Whether or not the wave energy flaps on the bottom of the ship would ever be practical is an open question. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting idea.
The thing I find most interesting about the design is the hull form itself. Car carriers typically are cumbersome boxes above the water and fine almost destroyer-like hulls below. This presents challenges in both intact and dynamic stability, including the need to carry ballast and parametric rolling and so. This design, with an almost trimaran shaped hull, addresses those issues nicely. Again, it is only a concept design, but i contains lots of interesting ideas.