Go Fly a Kite (and Sail a Ship)
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 12.17.07
A large kite installed on a merchant ship is expected to save shipping fuel costs by up to 20% and do its part for the environment. The kite-fitted MV Beluga Skysails cargo ship will make its maiden voyage in early 2008 and its inventors are hoping to start a small revolution in greening our deep blue seas.
There is a video of it after the fold.
The kite will cost about 500,000 Euros, paying for itself over three years, and will fly up to 300 meters in the sky where it will latch onto powerful winds. Companies are lining up to test the system, says Reuters, which will make the first trip from Greenland to Venezuela.
"The shipping industry emits 800 million tonnes of CO2 now and that will rise to over 1 billion tonnes in five years," says Niels Stolberg, a company rep. This news puts fresh wind in our sails. Let's just hope their leads don't get tangled with the kitesurfers, who are cropping up all over the world.
This post follows up on TreeHugger's past coverage on the idea.
See: Kite For Sail: Something Old is New Again
Sky Sails Promise Wind Energy for Fuel Reduction
Beluga Group Signs Contract for Sky Sail Power
Wow, this is an amazing idea. I kite board so I can truly understand the power that kites can generate.
I can only imagine a kite that large. And to think how little wind it would take to make use of all that area.
Wasn't this already referred to some time back on TH? Or is this a different company?
This is so cool. The modern day sailboat...inspired by Kite boarding and other kite based sports inspired from kites from ancient china...Oh yeah, and sail boats have been around since the world was flat.
It's good to know that people are finally starting to see that progress can mean going backwards too...people of the past had some good ideas too!
Hey, look at that. Poweing a boat with the wind. What will they think of next, powering it with some sort of long, wooden apparatus that humans move back and forth? I'm not an engineer, but I think someone could figure that out.
Kite For Sail was mentioned before and is a Hawaii based company working towards similar goals.
I've helped crew the Kite For Sail boat with owner Dan Tracy and I have to say I'm very impressed with the technology.
We recently completed two inter-island crossings and calculated that using the Kite For Sail system we realised a fuel savings of 50%.
www.kiteforsail.com has some great videos and more information.
Right now there is a 100% high tech and renewables tax incentive for investors.