Comment by calmbonsai

6 hours ago

No, they’re really not.

Turns out, sail-power scales sublinearly and, shocker, the wind isn’t a reliable source of power for the logistics demands of today’s supply chains.

We’re never going back to wind, but we will be de-carbonizing shipping either with ammonia combustion, fuel cells, or both.

24 comments

calmbonsai

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rob74  4 hours ago

If you had bothered to at least skim TFA, this is addressed in the third paragraph:

> The idea is not to turn modern cargo ships back into sailing vessels. Instead, these systems are designed to work alongside conventional engines, using the wind to reduce fuel consumption whenever conditions allow.

  • askvictor  20 minutes ago

    News articles to this effect have been popping up occasionally for the past 20 years at least. So the economics don't seem to stack up. At least not yet; but if oil gets a bit dearer...

TeMPOraL  1 hour ago

I think news publishing has recurring schedule for topics for filler articles, and this is just the regularly scheduled appearance of Flettner rotors.

I saw the headline, and immediately knew what it is. Always the same: headline implying sail power is back, body correcting that it's about minor fuel savings, and that some shipping companies are planning to install rotors on their fleet.

  • cucumber3732842  29 minutes ago

    Somewhere in a cube farm that hasn't been updated since the 90s:

    "This month's analytics report indicates our college educated white collar employed left leaning traffic to our properties is down over the same month last year"

    <puffs vape>

    "Don't worry about it, I'm having AI re-write all the green tech articles from 2005-15, it'll be back by November"

CorvusCrypto  4 hours ago

Agree that it's not going to be a binary shift. The tech does look promising for at least rotor sails, but that's an improvement which also demands use of traditional powerplants to drive the rotors ofc. Still worth investigating imo considering the shipping industry is the area of the world that still contributes highest to carbon output and is sort of an "untouchable" industry due to criticality. If cheap enough this could help while we wait for e.g. "greener" fuel or other things to develop. But yeah, to underscore further, not like shipping will look like my sailing yacht any time soon.

gehsty  4 hours ago

I think it’s clear that they are not turning back to use them exclusively, but clearly are ‘turning back’ in an additive way.

Eg putting these things on ammonia powered vessel will reduce the amount of fuel needed, which is probably a net benefit.

nradov  6 hours ago

Longer term I think we'll also use synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels manufactured through the Fischer–Tropsch process. People have proposed bringing back nuclear powered merchant ships but that's a non-starter for cost and security reasons. We can keep the nuclear plants safely on land and use them to make carbon-neutral fuel.

  • mschuster91  4 hours ago

    That is insanely inefficient however. It only makes sense for transoceanic air travel, probably supplanted by synthfuel from biomass, but in the long term we will see ships powered by batteries. Far far more efficient.

vintermann  4 hours ago

We're not going "back" to wind, but there are vessels with modern sails already deployed to save a couple of % fuel costs. There were 9 in 2020 and are 64 now, according to Sintef. Of course kinks are still getting ironed out, but it seems likely it will continue to grow.

defrost  3 hours ago

And yet:

  Klaveness Combination Carriers (KCC) has launched a brand-new vessel that aims to use wind technology that the company believes will not just reduce emissions, but also improve fuel efficiency on its voyages between China and Australia.

  Equipped with the first wind-assisted propulsion system in KCC’s fleet and a range of advanced energy efficiency technologies, MV Baltazar was officially launched at Fremantle Port this week

  .. According to the company, due to the ship’s trading area, size and advanced energy efficiency measures including suction sails, MV Baltazar has the lowest carbon footprint of any vessel in these trades.

~ (September 16, 2026) https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/high-s...

> de-carbonizing shipping either with ammonia combustion, fuel cells, or both.

Or methanol:

  Methanol is emerging as one of the most practical low-greenhouse gas (GHG) fuels for deep-sea shipping.

* https://methanol.org/what-fuels-shipping

* https://www.dnv.com/maritime/publications/methanol-fuel-in-s...

* https://www.lr.org/en/knowledge/research/fuel-for-thought/me...

  • GJim  3 hours ago

    > methanol

    Currently made from crude oil in a CO2 emitting process from a finite fossil fuel resource.

    And yes, whilst methanol can be distilled from wood/crops (a more expensive process), this simply cannot scale, especially if humanity wishes to eat...... You do realise a large container ship is 1/4 mile long and carries north of 18,000 TEU containers; that's 9000 lorries worth. They are big.

    • defrost  1 hour ago

      > Currently made from crude oil ..

      Much of it is, just like ammonia (see comment I responded to) but green methanol ships have been trialled using output from pilot green hydrogen plants.

      > You do realise a large container ship is 1/4 mile long

      People still use miles? Wow. I'm more familiar with the shipping of a billion tonne of iron ore per annum from the NW Australian coastline in bulk carrier ships but please, do blather on in that condescending tone.

Razengan  5 hours ago

How about the equivalent of an space elevator turned 90°:

Can we built giant conveyer belts across the ocean?