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Wind-assisted propulsion is the practice of decreasing the fuel consumption of a merchant vessel through the use of sails or some other wind capture device. Sails used to be the primary means of propelling ships, but with the advent of the steam engine and the diesel engine, sails came to be used for recreational sailing only. In recent years ...
Marine steam reciprocating engines, ca. 1905 A wind propelled fishing boat in Mozambique. Until the application of the coal-fired steam engine to ships in the early 19th century, oars or the wind were the principal means of watercraft propulsion.
According to the Cousteau Society, "when compared to the thrust coefficient of the best sails ever built (Marconi or square types, i.e. ships of the American Cup [sic] or the Japanese wind propulsion system) that of the turbosail is 3.5 to 4 times superior and gives the system a unique advantage for the economical propulsion of ships."
A commercial cargo ship, the MS Beluga Skysails, was built, and launched in 2007, with a kite rig supplementing conventional propulsion. [4] A European Union -funded four-year study of wind propulsion, using the MS Beluga Skysails , reported that the ship attained 5% fuel savings overall, which translated into 530 tonnes (530 t; 580 short tons ...
A windmill ship, wind energy conversion system ship or wind energy harvester ship propels itself by use of a wind turbine to drive a propeller. They use wind power [1] through a mechanical or electrical transmission to the propeller. Where transmission is electric, storage batteries may also be used to allow power generated at one time to be ...
Verena Frank, project manager at Beluga Shipping GmbH, SkySails GmbH's partner, further stated that "the project's core concept was using wind energy as auxiliary propulsion power and using wind as a free of charge energy". [2] This kite is connected to the ship by a cable, and controlled by an automatic pod of actuators to maximize the wind ...
(Main article: Marine propulsion) Ships can be propelled by numerous sources of power: human, animal, or wind power (sails, kites, rotors and turbines), water currents, chemical or atomic fuels and stored electricity, pressure, heat or solar power supplying engines and motors.
A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may be made from a combination of woven materials—including canvas or polyester cloth, laminated membranes or ...