ANEMOI Marine Technologies, a British provider of Rotor Sails, has reached an agreement with COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (CHI) to offer the wind propulsion system on newbuilds and through retrofitting during dry docking operations.
CHI has nine yards capable of up to 7.5 million dwt annual production.
With this agreement, CHI customers will have the option to install Anemoi’s Rotor Sails on vessels.
Rotor Sails, also known as Flettner Rotors, are mechanical sails. They are tall cylinders which, when driven to spin, harness the power of the wind to provide auxiliary propulsion to vessels. Anemoi says this significantly reduces fuel consumption and lowers harmful emissions entering the atmosphere by 5-30%.
Anemoi COO Nick Contopoulos said the deal was a landmark for his company and its technology.
“We are proud to have secured the commitment of a top Chinese yard group,” he said.
“CHI shares our long-term vision of the role that wind assisted technology can provide in delivering carbon reduction today. We are looking forward to a highly successful co-operation in the years to come and we are currently lining up the first installation opportunities with CHI.”
Guo ZhiQiang, assistant general manager at CHQ of CHI said, “As an integrated group of shipbuilding and marine engineering enterprises we are committed to supporting the shipping industry’s decarbonisation drive. Our pool of 3000 professional designers and 10,000 highly qualified technicians allows us to integrate the latest and most advanced solutions into the ships we build as well as retrofit in dry dock. We are delighted to be working with Anemoi Marine Technologies and have been impressed by their solution which can be combined with a range of other fuel saving measures.”
