On 12 November 2021 a large group of shipping decarbonisation pioneers gathered virtually just across the river Clyde form COP26, hosted by the Malin group, to celebrate the winners of the Wind Propulsion Innovation Awards which were announced yesterday.
“The awards were created by the International Windship Association (IWSA) to celebrate wind propulsion for commercial shipping, an impactful and ‘ready-to-implement’ decarbonisation solution toolbox for the shipping industry.
“We need to act quickly, and wind propulsion systems offer a huge opportunity as a ‘no regret technology’ that is compatible with all other fuel choices and vessel adjustments,” said Gavin Allwright, IWSA Secretary General and master of ceremonies for the event.
In October, the awards received some 84 nominations which were then whittled down to just over 30 shortlisted ones across seven categories by a 27-person shortlisting panel with judges drawn from across the shipping and renewable energy sectors.
In the 17 days of voting, the awards logged over 40,000 votes and each of the categories attracted a lot of attention and were reportedly tight races.
The Wind Propulsion Innovation Award for developers of innovative technology and installations and sponsored by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) was won by Anemoi Marine Technologies and Tufton Investment Management Ltd for the installation of rotor sails on Tufton’s TR Lady with the system to be installed on a rail system to allow cargo operations on the bulk carrier to continue uninterrupted.
The Wind Propulsion Technology User Award, sponsored by Thordon Bearings and presented to a company championing the use of wind propulsion through installing systems on ships, was snapped up by Vale SA for the five rotor sails installed on the MV Sea Zhoushan, VLOC (Very Large Ore Carrier) 325,000 dwt, which is currently the largest ship in the world to have wind assist systems installed.
In the tightest voting category of the day, the Oceanbird concept took away the Wind Propulsion Projects Award, the category spotlighting innovative projects that are furthering the uptake of wind propulsion, tackling barriers, or developing new technology and hybrid configurations and sponsored by Wärtsilä Marine Power.
This concept developed by Wallenius Marine is for a 7,000-unit capacity car carrier with primary wind propulsion enabling up to 90% reduced emissions, The project is now being carried forward by a joint venture with Alfa Laval named AlfaWall. Wallenius Wilhelmsen has announced that they intend to order a car-carrier called Orcelle Wind based on this that will be sailing in 2025.
