Luxembourg-based roro operator CLdN has penned a deal with Finnish tech company Norsepower to install two tilting rotor sails onboard the 2018-built Delphine by December 2022.
by December 2022.The Delphine, with a cargo capacity of close to 8,000 lane meters, transits between the UK, Ireland and Europe and is the largest shortsea roro operating in the world today. With two 35 m high and 5 m wide rotor sails, Norsepower has estimated that the technology would achieve a fuel and emission reduction of between 7 to 10% for this vessel, depending on the route.
The Norsepower rotor sail solution, which can be installed on new vessels or retrofitted on existing ships, is a modernised version of the Flettner rotor, a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power to thrust a ship. This will be the seventh vessel to be installed with Norsepower’s rotor sails and the third installation of the tilting function.
“Seeing the interest grow in our tilting rotor sail design demonstrates how the industry is looking for proven, flexible solutions to lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce fuel costs across a range of vessel sizes and operations,” said Tuomas Riski, CEO of Norsepower.
Gary Walker, COO of shipping at CLdN, added that this pilot project will help determine how the rotor sail technology could be rolled out on the company’s current fleet and its newbuild vessels.
