Norsepower, a Norway-headquartered provider of low maintenance, software operated, and data verified auxiliary wind propulsion systems based on the Flettner rotor principle, has announced that it has been selected to receive €2.6M in funding to further its research and development of the Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution technology.
Awarded by both the European Commission, and the Finnish Government’s funding agency for Innovation, Tekes, the funding will be used by Norsepower to optimise its Rotor Sail Solution to deliver greater fuel savings and enhanced ROI. Norsepower says the new Rotor Sail models will be ideally suited for tankers, bulk carriers, large ro-pax, and full size passenger vessels where smaller Rotor Sails would be inefficient for achieving the most impressive fuel savings. The new models will be designed to be suitable for ships voyaging globally, including the Northern Hemisphere and Arctic regions that have not yet seen auxiliary wind propulsion despite having favourable wind conditions. The Flettner rotor, believed to be the largest ever built, is planned to be 30m in height and 5m in diameter, with a maximum main-engine equivalent power output of more than four megawatts (MW).
Funding from Tekes will also support the development and inclusion of multi-functional features within the system that may have otherwise not been possible, and will accelerate the new Rotor Sails’ time to market. Additionally, the European Commission funding, which Norsepower has been selected to receive from the EU under its Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, will support manufacturing, assembling, land testing, fine tuning, and piloting of Norsepower’s medium-size (24m in height x 4m in diameter) Rotor Sail model.
By Jake Frith
