DSIC and China Merchants test landmark sail propulsion system on VLCC
Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (DSIC) and China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) have completed a test run of a sail propulsion system on CMES’s newbuild VLCC New Vitality.
According to DSIC, the VLCC completed a five-day sea trial with the novel propulsion system installed onboard and the results were successful.
The R&D of the sail propulsion system has been led by DSIC and supported by China Merchants and China Classification Society.
Following the trial, DSIC will further analyse and evaluate the data collected from the trial and continue its efforts to improve the system.
“The successful trial of the system represents China’s first application of wind power propulsion system on a merchant ship,” an official at DSIC told Splash, without revealing the timeframe for the system to be put into commercial use.
Wind source has been considered to have huge potential as complementary power for ships. Marine wind propulsion system producers including Finnish company Norsepower and German company Skysail have completed trials of their systems on commercial ships in the past few years.