Wind propulsion can result in substantial savings in fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions. Demonstration projects have shown that savings of 5% to 15% are immediately achievable in average wind conditions without really changing operations and ship design.

However, development projects presently underway indicate that with changed design and operations those savings can be highly increased, in (specific) cases exceeding 50% savings when sailing at moderate speeds in favourable wind. This is a very interesting prospect for shipping. Wind propulsion can deliver savings that are out of range for other technologies. It can also reduce the operational cost that is inevitably involved with carbon free / neutral fuels.

How to make best use of these newly (re)introduced wind propulsion technologies? What is the best wind propulsion arrangement to use and do you need to change the hull, appendages and propulsion? And how do we make sure that the solutions indeed perform as promised and are fully operational and compliant, also in demanding conditions? Certainly for the higher savings these questions require answers which vary per ship type and operation.

Based on more than ten years of research and pilot projects, MARIN provides integrated services for optimisation and verification of ships with wind propulsion systems. These services are presented in the flow diagram below and include Concept, Design Optimisation, Design Verification and Operational Performance.

Design optimisation
When considering wind propulsion we optimise the design through voyage simulations, aerodynamic optimisation and hydrodynamic and propulsion optimisation.

Design verification
Once a design has converged, the performance of it can be verified using more detailed calculations or experiments. This may be especially relevant for innovative designs requiring validation, or to ensure compliance to rules & regulations or contracts.