[lorenzo]

Skysails successful test on video.

http://skysails.info/index.php?id=13

This is set to revolutionize the shipping industry and reduce the huge amount of fuel it uses by up to 50%. Skysails is ready to enter the market now. Bingo.

[I don't like the logic of shooting all birds at once, but since others use it so often to criticize technologies, I will apply the same logic to promote this one: *if all the world's ocean going ships were to use Skysails all at once tomorrow, then we would be saving 400 to 500 million barrels of oil per year*. Pretty impressive, I think.

(Global bulk fuel consumption is around 160 million tonnes per annum.)

[KingM]

It looks great and a potentially huge breakthrough in transportation, which is an area that has been sadly lacking in breakthroughs for many years.

I wish I were seeing more about this in the mainstream media or hearing of cruise ships or tankers converting to this method of propulsion assistance. It would give me more confidence that this will be for real.

[FoxV]

The SkySails system consists of a towing kite filled with compressed air, an autopilot and wind-optimised route management.

If 100,000 tonne cargo ships have to start tacking across the oceans as they did before steam ships, you're looking at months before you get your cheap crap from china (not to mention a sail the size of a football field estimating from their demo yatch).

That 50% efficiency they talk about is only with a very high wind directly from behind (cargo ships already do around 25knts). I would be very surprised if this system can average 10% effeciency over a year's use (and not surprised if it averages 0%)

[BlueGhost]

kite traction is really pretty versitile.
Ideally you want a cross wind (you'll get more speed from a cross wind than trying to travel down wind).

Kites can operate closer to the wind than sails so yes some of the time the kite will be useless but with enough wind strength it will fly.

as to news coverage this was on bbc 24 a little whle ago iirc. It was on TV for certain though thinking about it they may have been doing their experiment with the test boat in a documentary.. hmm