cost, with zero need for storage on board and zero infrastructure required on shore and that energy predictably remains at zero cost for the lifetime of the vessel.
Your association has this year declared the ‘Decade of Wind Propulsion’, is that just a marketing ploy or is there real substance behind that?
Allwright: There is of course an element of informing the market in any announcement and the message there is that wind propulsion is a credible, robust and increasingly economically attractive solution. However, the ‘Decade of Wind Propulsion’ announcement is far more than that. It is a renewed commitment from our 130+ members to deliver on the potential of wind propulsion in this decade. We already have wind propulsion units in the market, with 11 large vessels with systems installed and over 20 rigs in operation from ferries to bulkers and a couple of tankers including a VLCC. There is another large ‘wind-ready’ bulker and three more installations pending in Q2 this year along with two newbuilds underway. These are alongside 20+ smaller cargo and cruise vessels. However, it is scaling these installations that is the challenge; more demonstrator vessels, mass production facilities and preparations for fleet installations that will be vital to deliver significant numbers by 2030 etc. The foundations for these are being laid now and we predict the numbers of demonstrators will double year on year up to 2024 without any further commercial orders. We are also seeing large industry players engaging with wind, the past few months have seen announcements from Oldendorff Carriers, Mitsui O.S.K. lines, Wallenius Wilhelmsen and Cargill among others.
There is also the need to ‘optimise’ the systems that will be increasingly common in the fleet over the next few years. This involves better integration into vessel EMS along with improved support systems such as weather-routing for wind, satellite forecasting as well as sensors on rigs to monitor performance and even LiDAR to identify wind patterns as they come into the ship in real time. All of these technical solutions will feed into the third- party validation and fleet evaluation
that is also under development now to assist shipowners identifying the best solutions for their fleets. ‘Facilitation’ is the third key area and this is a wide one, covering everything from working with class to continually improve and adapt their wind-assist guidelines to the set up of an accelerator program to cluster together expertise to help deliver wind propulsion systems from concept to market to help ensure a robust R&D pipeline. This also extends to assisting with the roll out of low and zero-emissions fuels as mentioned before and integrating those in the design of new vessels.
On that point, you recently penned a piece suggesting that wind propulsion could actually fund not only the IMO205 decarbonisation target but also full decarbonisation. Can the industry really accept that as a credible assertion?
Allwright: Yes, I think the industry can. This was a thought piece entitled Could Wind Propulsion Deployment Fund the Full Decarbonisation of Shipping? It adopted some conservative assumptions on fuel price, no increase this decade and then a 35% increase each decade after that as carbon levies are introduced and higher cost alternatives enter the mix. It assumed that wind propulsion would be rolled out substantially this decade, securing 20% reductions in fuel and emissions across the fleet in the 2030s with some adjustments in speed and routing. Even using these conservative assumptions, this calculation would yield around $1 trillion in savings by 2050 with a price tag of roughly $300 billion, and also decrease the total cost of roll out by a margin of 10-20%. The total cost for decarbonisation has been estimated by UMAS and ETC at roughly $1 trillion to reach IMO2050, and $1.4-1.9 trillion for full decarbonisation, taking a fuel heavy approach, thus wind could in theory pick up the tab. This scenario is of course predicated on a decision to adopt wind propulsion systems at scale this decade, involving extensive retrofitting of the existing fleet and newbuilds being wind optimised as they enter the fleet.
Now that brings us to the most recent development, the Open letter released by IWSA a few days ago. This letter calls on industry decision makers
to adopt a level-playing field for all energy sources and go beyond the current narrow ‘fuel-centric’ approach.
Why now? and How do you propose to make this happen?
Allwright: Firstly, I would like to make the point that the Open Letter is signed by 97 maritime companies from large shipowners through to small technology developers. Admittedly this is a big ask, however our industry is embarking on an unprecedented transition far greater in scale that the first wind to fossil fuel transition, and in a far shorter period, meaning at least 50% decarbonisation within the lifespan of a vessel launched today.
That means that we need to use all the tools in the energy toolbox and these need to be assessed side-by- side in a transparent way, taking in the full lifecycle and all external impacts and costs. Currently wind propulsion is under-represented in those assessments and thus we are calling for wind to be fully integrated into all industry reports and decarbonisation pathways going forward. We are calling for a multi-stakeholder working group to be established to ensure we fully understand the potential of wind propulsion and ensure that all policy and other regulations recognise wind as direct energy source.
The challenges facing the industry mean we need to make sure decision making is based on clear definitions, credible data and standardized assessment criteria and that is currently not the case. Thus, the letter goes onto to call for a strategic review of our decarbonisation efforts we are all pulling in the same direction. A review of this kind doesn’t need to slow down the market development but run parallel, but it will ensure that we fully appreciate what a hybrid approach to decarbonisation means, and hopefully we can avoid any dead-ends or stranded assets in the future.
We stand ready to work with all stakeholders across the shipping spectrum to put these initiatives into action, and which will be able to draw on a lot of fantastic work already underway in silos across the industry, just in a more collective, transparent and urgent manner.
70 | The Report • June 2021 • Issue 96
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136
