Friday October 17, 2008

US Navy charters new breed of kite-powered sailing cargo ship

news.cnet.com :

For the first time, the US Navy is using a new breed of sailing ship to deliver military equipment, a move that can potentially reduce fuel costs by 20-30%, or roughly $1,600 a day per ship, according to the ship's owners. The Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) has chartered the "kite-assisted", fuel-saving 400-foot MV Beluga to deliver Air Force and Army cargo to from Europe to the US.

The MV Beluga uses a paraglider-shaped, SkySails-System, which supplements its conventional, internal combustion engines. The sail is basically a huge, computer-controlled kite that soars 100 to 300 yards into the air, using the wind to tow the ship at the end of a long tear-proof, synthetic rope. The kite folds up, and can be stowed in an area the size of a telephone booth. The SkySail can "generate two to three times more power per square meter sail area than conventional sails," according to the company.

- This is an interesting concept, and harkens back to the old days of wind-powered sailing ships. It has been mentioned on the peakoil.com forums before (also here) some months back, and the comments have generally been positive as well.

The payback period is said to be between 3-5 years, but that's really more of a guesstimate seeing how you can neither predict future fuel prices nor the wind direction and strength with any kind of certainty. If they can bring the costs down further with volume production, or if fuel prices go back up, the payback period might improve further, and the system would make even more sense.

(2008-10-17 23:53:33 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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