Airbus and Louis
Dreyfus Armateurs to Trial eSAILs on Ville de Bordeaux
(29/09/23)
Airbus has confirmed that it will equip one of the vessels it uses to
transport aircraft subassemblies, chartered from shipowner Louis
Dreyfus Armateurs, with a special sail that will deliver
savings in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
Developed by the Spanish firm
bound4blue, the eSAIL creates as much as six to seven times more lift than a
conventional rigid sail. It consists of a sail-like vertical
surface and an electric-powered air suction system that helps the
airflow to re-adhere to the sail, generating additional lift and
thereby reducing the load on the ship’s main engines.
Three 22-metre high eSAILs will be fitted to the
Ville de Bordeaux ahead of a six-month performance monitoring
period starting early 2024. The Ville de Bordeaux regularly
ferries A320 Family subassemblies from Europe to Mobile in the
United States for final assembly.
“After
having implemented and proven our technology on three ships
already, we’re excited to install our 22-metre eSAILs on Ville de
Bordeaux, said David Ferrer, CTO of bound4blue. “This deployment will mark the first-ever fixed suction
sail installation on a Ro-Ro ship, demonstrating that suction
sails can be deployed on ships with high weather deck and large windage area, not compromising the vessel’s stability.”
Fitting the eSAILs on the Ville de Bordeaux
supports Airbus’ commitment to halve CO2 emissions from its
maritime operations by 2030, compared to a 2015 baseline.
According to bound4blue estimations, the eSAILs could deliver
fuel and CO2 emissions savings of up to 560 tons and 1,800 tons
respectively for this ship annually.
The installation of eSAILs on the Ville de
Bordeaux is co-funded by the European Union.
“We at Airbus have been studying wind-assisted
technologies as a potential energy source for our maritime
operations for many years,” said Nicolas Chrétien, Head of
Sustainability & Environment at Airbus. “As we embark on an
exciting journey with our partners Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and
bound4blue, we reaffirm our ambition to explore all innovation
pathways to develop more sustainable maritime solutions and
further reduce the carbon footprint of our industrial operations.
This technology looks promising and we are eager to start testing
it in real conditions by the end of the year.”
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