The Oceanbird is the flagship project for Swedish maritime research. It is a revolutionary sail ship designed for cargo shipping. Currently, diesel engines support 90% of cargo shipping. Transitioning the shipping industry to wind power will dramatically reduce carbon emissions.
The Swedish Transport Administration co-financed the collaboration between Wallenius Marine, KTH, and SSPA to build the Oceanbird.
The sails of the ship are not the conventional fabric sales that we think of when we think of sailing ships.
The Oceanbird has 5 telescopic sails that are 260 feet tall. They are telescopic to allow the boat to safely sail under bridges. The sails can also rotate a full 360 degrees.
The sail on the Oceanbird looks similar to a plane wing.
The engineers married the aerodynamics of planes with shipbuilding technology to create the ship. Integrating these two technologies allows the Oceanbird to sail over the ocean analogous to how a seabird glides long distances over the ocean. The sails have the propelling ability of a plane wing and the vessel uses the technology of classic sail boats.
The ship is almost as fast as a traditional ship.
Carl-Johan Söder, naval architect at Wallenius Marine explained it in a press release :
“Our design features a unique combination where the hull and rigs work together as one unit and has been specifically optimized for sailing the oceans. With our configuration the vessel will have an average speed of 10 knots on a typical Atlantic crossing. A North Atlantic crossing with Oceanbird will therefore take around twelve days, compared to the eight days it takes conventional vessels.”
Believe it or not, this is not the only kind of wind-powered cargo ship.
There is also a different type of wind-powered ship that is powered by a rotor sail . A rotor sail is even stranger looking than the sail of the Oceanbird. The sails look like large columns.
Rotor sails depend on the Magnus effect to harness the power of the wind.
The rotor sails are large rotating columns. The rotation causes wind to move faster on one side than the other. The differences in pressure produce thrust in the direction of the lower pressure .
Rotor sails alone have not powered cargo ships, but they do reduce fuel consumption .
Rotor sails were a step in the right direction.
But, the technology of the Oceanbird can revolutionize the shipping industry. We may even see these new ships on our shores by 2024!
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The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee set the goal to reduce emissions from the shipping industry by 50% by 2050. Thanks to this new technology, we are on our way to meeting that goal.