Operational strategy and economic impacts of wind-powered ships

Research Project, 2024

The EU’s legislative bodies have reached an agreement on including shipping in its Emission Trading System (ETS), which implies ships sailing in EU waters will need to proceed with the employment of alternative fuels or energy sources in order not to exceed the greenhouse gas intensity limit. Among the emission reduction measures, wind as a clean alternative energy source is deemed a promising solution. However, challenges in technology, operation, and logistics/economics exist for wind-powered ships. In the proposed interdisciplinary project, the applicants plan to tackle these challenges by further developing the existing numerical models and combining them with maritime economics models, with the purpose to provide a method to reach an optimal operation strategy and estimate the economic impacts of wind-powered ships. Such a method makes it possible to predict the total costs related to wind-powered ships. In practice, it can help ship owners decide what emission reduction technologies suit their fleet best and how to put requirements on their new-building or retrofitting vessels if wind-powered ships are the options.