What's Old is New Again

Yes, we all know the hit movie in which the nutty professor creates a time-travel DeLorean.  "Back to the Future" is the latest trend in cargo shipping.  Sails have made a reappearance on a cargo vessel named Pyxis Ocean will be the first vessel to test mechanical sails at sea in a voyage from China to Brazil.  The two sails, erected on an otherwise conventional cargo vessel, stand 123 ft tall and are constructed from the same material as wind turbines.  They were designed in the UK, built in China.  

Skeptics did not see a role for wind energy in shipping five years ago.  Now the industry is waking up to a way to save expensive fuel and about 2.1% of the planet's carbon emissions. The head of BAR Technologies told BBC that by 2025 half of newly built ships will have wind propulsion.  His confidence lies in the fuel savings of 1.5 tons per day.  Four sails on a vessel would save 20 tons of CO₂ per day.  [photo credits: BBC]

Sailing cargo vessels are making a comeback in short voyage and coastal shipping.  A steel hauled schooner, Appolonia [photo below]sails up and down the Hudson River carrying up to 10 tons of cargo to river towns from New York to Hudson, a distance of 250 nautical miles.  Renovated in five years, it has been sailing this route since 2020.  Appolonia ships fifty types of products.  Its biggest loads are maple syrup and chili sauce.  A Dutch captain sails the 130 ft barge De Tukker between the Netherlands and Portugal carrying a mixed load of up to 70 tons and twelve passengers.  The former coaster makes stops in England, France and Spain.  Shipping this way is more expensive, but the ecological costs of grotesquely large container vessels is hidden from most people' view.  The owner of De Tukker wants to build a fleet of sailing cargo vessels, each ten times larger than his current ship, to operate around the European continent offering an emission-free shipping service

Right now there are about 110,000 vessels in the international shipping fleet and new orders for vessels. Only about 100 are recorded as having wind assisted propulsion.  The number of vessels using this technology has doubled over the last twelve months. As a whole ships emit an estimated 837 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.  The industry agreed to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050, a goal which many critics called "toothless".  Until alternative clean fuels are developed, the wind, which once propelled sailing ships around the world before the infernal combustion engine, is the latest thing on the high seas.