Scandlines prepares next ferry for a Norsepower rotor sail
The experience gained from more than a year of rotor sails to
hybrid ferry “Copenhagen
are so good that Scandlines has prepared its sister ferry “Berlin” for fitting with a Norsepower rotor sail. The
hybrid ferry “Berlin
also sails to
Rostock-Gedser ferry route
unlike the Copenhagen, but under the German flag.
When Scandlines decided to install a Norsepower rotor sail to hybrid ferry “Copenhagen” in 2019, technical data from the producer Norsepower Oy Ltd, experience from a few other shipping companies, and its own investigations and calculations formed the basis. The Norsepower rotor sail was installed in May 2020. Now Scandlines has had about a year to collect data to how the rotor sail works to “Copenhagen” and what effect it has specifically to route between Rostock in the south and Gedser in the north.
The Scandlines Hybrid Fähre Copenhagen leaving the Rostock Sea Canal for Gedser.
“We had expected that the rotor sail to “Copenhagen” would lead to CO2 savings of four to five percent. This expectation was fulfilled, so we are now ready for the next step and have therefore also prepared the sister ferry “Berlin” for a sail,” says Michael Guldmann Petersen, COO of Scandlines.
The “Berlin” also serves the route between Rostock and Gedser. Thanks to its perfect position, the route meets the condition for the best possible effect of the sail to the drive, namely that the wind hits to sail at right angles.
“Our route across the Baltic Sea runs in a north-south direction, and the wind usually comes from the west or east. So our rotor sail has optimal conditions,” says the satisfied operations manager.
Other green measures taken by Scandlines to the way to zero-emission ferries are not quite as visible to to outside world because they are located below the surface of the water. But a rotor sail reaching 30 meters into the air is a very clear sign of a green vision.
“Overall, there was a lot of interest in the rotor sail – and a lot of astonishment among the passengers about the “smokestack” at first. Most of the crew members have become masters at giving technical explanations that are easy to understand,” reports Michael Guldmann Petersen.
Tuomas Riski, CEO of Norsepower, says: “We are pleased that Scandlines is expanding the use of our rotor sail technology after achieving the target of reduced CO² emissions to their first vessel, the “Copenhagen”. The operation of our rotor sail would be practically applicable to approximately 30,000 vessels to the world’s current fleet, and we hope this growing confidence in wind propulsion technology is another signal to shipowners and operators.”
The preparation for the rotor sail consists, among other things, of building a steel foundation to ferry, to which the rotor sail will then stand. The work took place when the “Berlin” had its scheduled shipyard stay at Remontowa in Poland at the end of May. The installation of the actual rotor sail is planned for 2022.
