Are they "investing" or are they "subsidizing".My advice: do invest. After all, they're German engineers (you know what that means) and the EU's investing, so they must be onto something.
malcomatic_51 wrote:Reading through the Skysail site, I am more convinced than ever that they have the tongue firmly in the cheek....How can you launch a kite 300 feet across from a ship at sea? It's quite hard to launch a little life boat safely out at sea...
Vindskip: LNG- and Wind powered
Sustainable Vessel Proposed by Norway’s Lade AS
Norway’s Lade AS proposes a combination of liquefied natural gas fuel and wind power for a new generation of sustainable cargo ships, and hopes to see the first of the new breed deployed as early as 2019.
That’s the word from Terje Lade, who heads the Ålesund-based firm and is the developer of the “Vindskip” concept.
“Sustainable sea transport is dependent of the development of a new technology that can utilize the renewable resources on the sea,” the company says.
A Rolls-Royce Propulsion System
Lade would combine dedicated-LNG engines from Rolls-Royce with a hull design that would take advantage of both relative and true wind, using airfoil technology to maximize thrust.
another view of Lade's proposed 'Vindskip'
another view of Lade’s proposed ‘Vindskip’
“The wind has been made predictable thanks to modern meteorology,” the company says. “Through a computerized weighting of a steady flow of meteorological information, a computer program can calculate the best route taking advantage of the available wind energy.”
Rolls-Royce Marine has designed an LNG system capable of 23 days of steaming across the Pacific from Japan to Chile, Lade says. The Vindskip as currently envisioned would have two LNG tanks.
Lade, which was established in 2010, holds both Norwegian and international patents related to the Vindskip design.
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