Long-distance maritime transport provides 80-90% of global trade, due to NOx, SOx and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, strict regulations are set to cause major technological shifts. Whilst the pathway to achieve the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) target of 50% GHG reduction by 2050 is unclear, what is the needed to drastically reduce the industry’s dependence on fossil fuels. Alternative fuels such as liquified natural gas (LNG) are reaching mainstream and provide 20-30% CO2 reduction. With wind being a truly maritime feature, the onboard harnessing of wind energy will play an important role in the decarbonization of the long-distance maritime transport industry. However, its uptake has been slow and there are significant challenges to its widespread uptake in the commercial shipping sector.
WHISPER stands for Wind Energy Harvesting for Ship PRopulsion assistance. WHISPER proposes to exploit the adoption of on-board wind and solar energy harvesting technology by targeting the shipping industry’s greatest contributors to GHGs, the long-distance maritime industry, representing 2,5% of Greenhouse gas emissions, and demonstrating its commercial viability.
Main purpose of the project is to: “develop, design, manufacture and test wind-solar hybrid power system and wind assisted propulsion system as fuel saving solutions on retrofit bulk carrier and containership.”
The project aims at:
• Developing and demonstrating fully modular retrofit solutions combining:
o Wind Solar Hybrid Power system (WSHPS)
o Wind Assisted Propulsion System (WAPS)
• Demonstrating fuel savings
o On a retrofit containership (15,3%)
o On a retrofit bulk carrier (29,8%)
• Establishing a case study for a new purpose-built container ship and bulk carrier
The WSHPS tackles fuel consumption and emissions of ship’s engines by generating electricity from renewable energy sources reducing power demand production from fossil fuels (ca. 15% of the total fuel consumption) on board the vessels This will be achieved by generating electrical power by novel vertical axis turbines (VAWT) mounted inside open-sided shipping containers and high efficiency flexible photovoltaic (PV) panels. The Project aims at installing the WSHPS on both bulk carrier and container ship. In addition, PV have been installed early in the Project on the latches of the bulk carrier with the purpose to use all available space and test new design.
The WAPS is a fully automatic tiltable rigid wingsail, specifically designed to endure the harsh maritime weather and strong winds encountered with trans-oceanic maritime sailing. This will significantly reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of the ship’s main engine. This technology will be installed on the bulk carrier.
WHISPER viability will be proven through two full-scale commercial shipping demonstrations:
• A container ship for the containerized turbines combined with PV panels; and
• A bulk carrier where all technologies will be installed and operated on a vessel in service.
Furthermore, whilst the modular and minimal ship modification nature of WHISPER’s solution is a natural fit for the retrofit market, the technology is highly applicable to new purpose-built ships and the designs will be further developed and adapted with case studies of a new purpose-built container ship and bulk carrier.
The project has received funding from the European Union‘s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Grant Agreement N°101096577 and Lloyd’s Register, also partner in the project, is funded by UK Research and Innovation under project agreement number 1006574. Maximum grant amount is about 9,2 MEUR and the project is set to run over the upcoming 4 year or until the end of 2026.
The project is conducted by 14 partners, from 6 countries, associated in a consortium
