During lockdown, a Norsepower Rotor Sail was installed on the Scandlines hybrid ferry, the MV Copenhagen, hybrid ferry operating on the Rostock-Gedser route between Germany and Denmark.
“Scandlines has a strong track record of investing in new clean technologies to reduce emissions across its fleet,” said Tuomas Riski, CEO, Norsepower.
“The ability to harness the wind through Norsepower’s Rotor Sail – alongside hydrodynamic hull optimisation, and hybrid electric propulsion system with a battery powered energy storage – makes the M/V Copenhagen one of the world’s most energy-efficient ferries.”
Wind focus
The installation was undertaken as part of the EU funded Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion (WASP) project launched in late 2019.
The project has the aim of installing five wind assisted propulsion units on to a series of different vessels operating in the North Sea and Baltic Sea to test, validate and help facilitate the uptake off wind-assisted propulsion technologies.
These systems are expected to deliver between 4 to 5% fuel savings – corresponding to the same amount of CO2 on average and more than 20% in optimal wind conditions.
The steel foundation (21 tonnes) for the Rotor Sail (42 tonnes) was put in place during an ordinary yard stay back in November 2019. The installation of the Norsepower supplied Rotor Sail itself, the 30 metre rotor, was installed on the vessel during an overnight stay in the Port of Rostock.
Scandlines said that if all goes well during the testing period it will consider more installations in the future.
