OPTIWISE goes East

The industry for wind propulsion for ships is booming in Europe. A vast majority of the wind propulsion technologies installed world-wide come from European suppliers. This could probably be attributed to a combination of EU-funded research, an innovative shipping community and increasing EU-regulations on CO2-emissions from shipping. However, the interest in wind propulsion for ships is also rapidly increasing in ship-building nations like China, Korea and Japan.

With this background, in January, the two OPTIWISE partners RISE and MARIN participated in the International Seminar on Green Shipping and Safe Shipping, hosted by Cosco Shipping in Shanghai.

"EU-funded research projects, like OPTIWISE, enable cooperation between researchers and industry across European borders", says Dr. Sofia Werner of RISE. "But the shipping section is global and we must also collaborate with researchers outside Europe."

To an audience of Chinese researchers and engineers from academia, yards, and design offices, the two OPTIWISE partners presented EU-funded research on sea trials and laboratory testing of wind powered ships.  

"The development of assessment methods that can ensure both performance and safety is an area in which European institutes can contribute to the global uptake of wind propulsion for ships", says Rogier Eggers of MARIN.