Norsepower Oy Ltd., the leading global provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, announced the installation of five tilting Rotor Sails (earlier post) on board a new-build Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) chartered by Vale, the Brazilian mining company.

The Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution is a modernized version of the Flettner rotor (earlier post)—a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect—a commonly observed effect in which a spinning ball or cylinder in this case curves away from its principal path to harness wind power to thrust a ship.

The first installation of Norsepower’s innovative Rotor Sails on a bulk carrier demonstrates the adaptability of the technology to reduce fuel consumption, fuel costs and reduce emissions across a variety of vessel types.

The new vessel, a 325,000 dwt VLOC, is owned by Pan Ocean Ship Management and will be chartered by Vale after construction is completed in China. To enable efficient cargo operations, the five 24m high and 4m diameter Rotor Sails can be tilted by using hydraulic cylinders.

With growing international and public pressure on the maritime industry to move towards decarbonising their operations, the ability to harness the wind to generate thrust, reduce fuel consumption and emissions, is a natural next step is becoming an increasingly viable option to meet imminent regulatory drivers such as EEXI and CII ratings.

Norsepower has analysed the routes for the vessel chartered by Vale and estimates that its technology would be able to achieve an efficiency gain of up to 8% and a consequent reduction of up to 3,400 tons of CO₂ per year.

The Norsepower Rotor Sail is the first third-party verified and commercially operational auxiliary wind propulsion technology for the global maritime industry. The solution is fully automated and detects whenever the wind is strong enough to deliver fuel and emission savings, at which point the Rotor Sails start automatically.