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Marine

World's only Rotor Sail passenger ship goes into service

By Paul Ridden
April 13, 2018
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The M/S Viking Grace has had a single Norsepower Rotor Sail installed, which is expected to help reduce carbon emissions by up to 900 tonnes per year
Norsepower
The M/S Viking Grace already has noteworthy green credentials as the first ship of its size to be fueled by Liquified Natural Gas, now the Rotor Sail Solution will give it wind-assisted thrust
Norsepower
The M/S Viking Grace has had a single Norsepower Rotor Sail installed, which is expected to help reduce carbon emissions by up to 900 tonnes per year
Norsepower
Norsepower's 24 meter tall Rotor Sail being installed in the M/S Viking Grace passenger ship
Norsepower
Master of Viking Grace Magnus Törnroos and Norsepower CEO Tuomas Riski in front of the passenger ship's new Rotor Sail
Norsepower
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Last year we detailed how Finland's Norsepower had rediscovered an engineering innovation from the 1920s called the rotorsail, which sees large cylinders installed atop big ships harness wind for propulsion. Now a passenger ship operated by the Viking Line has been treated to the Rotor Sail Solution and has set sail on wind-assisted trips between Finland and Sweden.

The M/S Viking Grace – which has 880 cabins and can accommodate 2,800 passengers and around 500 cars – went into service in 2013, when it was reported to be the first ship of its size to be fueled by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Its hull was hydrodynamically-optimized for low fuel consumption and soundproofing technology was fitted to keep noise down. So it already boasted some noteworthy green credentials.

Norsepower's 24 meter tall Rotor Sail being installed in the M/S Viking Grace passenger ship
Norsepower

A single Rotor Sail cylinder measuring 24 meters (78 ft) tall and 4 meters (13 ft) in diameter has now been installed on the passenger vessel, which is described as a modern version of the Flettner rotor.

The technology makes use of the Magnus effect, where wind passing a spinning cylinder moves the air faster on one side than the other and results in thrust at 90 degrees to the wind direction. The Norsepower system uses sensors to determine when the wind is strong enough to result in fuel savings, then the rotors automatically kick in and the sea wind helps the Viking Line's flagship vessel to move along.

As well as reducing overall fuel consumption, the addition of the Rotor Sail technology is expected to reduce carbon emissions by up to 900 tonnes per year.

The M/S Viking Grace began ferrying passengers between Turku in Finland and Stockholm, Sweden, on April 12. You can find out more from the subtitled video below. The Viking Line has also revealed that two Rotor Sails are set to be installed on a new build ferry expected to be operational by 2020.

Source: Norsepower

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MarineWindSustainableShipping
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Paul Ridden
While Paul is loath to reveal his age, he will admit to cutting his IT teeth on a TRS-80 (although he won't say which version). An obsessive fascination with computer technology blossomed from hobby into career before hopping over to France for 10 years, where he started work for New Atlas in 2009. Now back in his native Blighty, he serves as Managing Editor in Europe.
8 comments
JimFox
Electric ferries are selling like hot cakes in Norway so this, I think will be obsolete in a few years. Definitely when battery power densities increase as widely predicted.
Ralf Biernacki
The Flettner rotor generates more lift than a passive airfoil of a comparable plan size; say, about as much as a sail three times as broad. Even so, the rotor is preposterously small for a behemoth of a ship like that. It is not likely to make much of an impact on efficiency---which is why the blurb talks about the savings in absolute terms, rather than in percentages, which would be minuscule. And that 900 tonnes of CO2 per year (much less than the 2800 passengers will breathe out in the same time) is probably calculated for constant cruising under ideal conditions---ideal for the rotor that is, rather than the high speeds that a ferry like that runs at. To get a boost from the wind under actual cruising speeds, the wind would have to be at least twice as fast as the ship's speed of 22 knots---not quite hurricane force, but a respectably stiff gale, and coming in at the right angle (literally). So this is a gimmick, nothing more, aimed to draw eco-faddish passengers. To make actual difference, they would need five or six rotors like that, and on a smaller and slower ship.
Malatrope
Without the help of the back of an envelope, I'd have to venture a guess that the massive <i>drag</i> of this thing, when conditions aren't right for adding thrust, will vastly overwhelm the benefit and result in <i>more</i> fuel being used.
Trylon
Why hasn't any company put Skysails on a cruise ship?
Bob
Too small and more trouble than it's worth.
Nik
It's good for a smile!
Bernd Kohler
I am all in for Flettner rotors, but this is a gimmick. To small to do anything besides creating resistance when not rotating. See other comment. Batterie power and sailing power two different things as it was mixed up in an comment. The lift coefficient (CL) of a good designed Flettner Rotor with the correct endplates and the matching revolution of the rotor to the windforce can be till 8 a good sail can have a CL from1.
ljaques
Every little bit helps. Each cruise ship (average) emits 0.83 tonnes of CO2 per cruise, so saving the equivalent of 900 tonnes per year is a good start. REal good. If they figured a cruise a day, that's 303 tonnes worth, less 900 tonnes equivalent, so the ships are defying physics! And all the while, consuming 2,104 liters of fuel per hour under steam. Very interesting.
So, it's all BS (as is =alarmism= aka Climate Change) but I feel that anything we can do to lighten our footprint on Mother Earth is a good thing. Every small step relieves a little bit of humanity's penchant for destruction. Add solar to every ship and it adds another little step.
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