A three-year project to research Wind-Assisted Sail Propulsion (WASP) has been launched in Europe supported by €5.4Mn (about $6 million) in funding provided by the Interreg North Sea Europe program, part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 

The project brings together universities, wind-assist technology providers with ship owners to research, trial and validate the operational performance of a selection of wind propulsion solutions thus enabling wind propulsion technology market penetration and contributing to a greener North Sea transport system through harvesting the regions abundant wind potential. This fully aligns with the wider programs’ objective of promoting the development and adoption of products, services, and processes to accelerate the greening of the North Sea Region.

Danitsja van Heusden-van Winden, Netherlands Maritime Technology Foundation and WASP project lead beneficiary said:  “We’re delighted to be able to commence the WASP project and we are thrilled and looking forward to being able to test the wind propulsion systems on different types of vessels, routes and sea conditions throughout the project duration thanks to Interreg’s support and the efforts of all the project partners.”

The project shipping partners include Scandlines, Boeckmans Ship Management and Van Dam Shipping along with two additional partners to be added shortly. Wind propulsion, shipping logistics and innovation experts will be monitoring and evaluating operations and developing pathways and applications to tackle the regulatory and business-related issues that are often major barriers to the uptake of new technologies. This expertise is drawn from Chalmers University of Technology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kühne Logistics University, the Danish Ecocouncil, Nord University, SSPA, the European Federation for Transport and Environment, HHX.blue and supported by the International Windship Association and the Netherlands Maritime Technology Foundation.

Gavin Allwright, Secretary-General of the International Windship Association said: “Wind propulsion solutions are a very important technology segment for the decarbonization of shipping. The propulsive energy provided is substantial and this is delivered directly to the ship with no need for new infrastructure. That secures a significant portion of shipowners’ fuel requirement at zero cost, creating an element of certainty in a volatile and increasingly insecure market in the future.”

These wind propulsion systems can be installed on existing vessels. Depending on the specific technical solution, savings of 5-20% and hopefully possibly up to 30% of fuel and emissions are possible for retrofits. Incorporated into optimized new builds, even higher savings are feasible.