New high-tech kite helps power ship, cut emissions

The SkySails system aided the MS Beaufort during testing. The first commercial ship using the system launched yesterday. (Reuters)

HAMBURG - The world's first commercial merchant ship with a giant high-tech kite to aid its engines was launched in Hamburg yesterday. The goal is to slash fuel consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The pioneering 400-foot-long MV Beluga SkySails was ceremonially launched in the northern German port ahead of its maiden voyage across the Atlantic to Venezuela in early January.

Pulled by a huge kite to catch strong winds up to 100 yards above the surface, the $725,600 SkySails system is projected to cut fuel costs by about 20 percent - or about $1,600 per day. It will also reduce carbon dioxide output, which is blamed for climate change, by a similar amount, the designers say.

"The shipping industry emits 800 million tons of carbon dioxide now and that will rise to over 1 billion tons in five years," said Niels Stolberg, chief executive of Beluga Shipping, which helped develop the system. "Playing a role in reducing emissions is important for us," Stolberg said. "It's important to look at the commercial side of this [saving fuel costs] but also the CO2 aspect. In a few years, shipping companies will have to cut emissions or pay a price."

Stolberg, who plans to install the paraglider-shipped kite system on two more vessels twice as large as the MV Beluga SkySails by 2009, said the savings will cover the costs of the investment in the system within three to five years.

More than 450 people crowded into the harbor and onto the ship on a freezing afternoon to witness the launch and watch the giant white sail tethered to a 15-yard-high mast near its bow unfold just above the deck in a gentle breeze.

The SkySails system can use powerful offshore winds between 100 and 300 yards above the sea with the help of its high-tech control pod, but it won't work with head-on winds and will not benefit ships traveling above 16 knots.

Stephan Wrage, managing director of SkySails, first got the idea to harness the wind years ago as a kite and sailing enthusiast. He developed it with prototypes from a 3.5-yard boat to a final test phase with a 55-yard vessel.