Norsepower will install its Rotor Sail Solution on board LNG-fuelled cruise ferry »Viking Grace«. The 57,565 GT ferry currently operates[ds_preview] in the archipelago between Turku (Finland) and Stockholm (Sweden) and is already one of the most environmentally-friendly cruise ferries. With the addition of Norsepower’s technology the vessel will further reduce its emissions, fuel burn and fuel costs, reducing carbon emissions by about 900t annually; equivalent to cutting 300t of LNG fuel per year.
Preparations for the retrofit are underway, with the installation scheduled to take place during Q2 of 2018. »Viking Grace« is set to be retrofitted with one medium-sized Norsepower Rotor Sail unit that is 24m in height and 4m in diameter, making it the first ever global LNG/wind electric propulsion hybrid ship.
The Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution, which can be installed on new vessels or retrofitted on existing ships without off-hire costs, is a modernised version of the Flettner rotor, a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power to propel a ship. The solution is fully automated and senses whenever the wind is strong enough to deliver fuel savings at which point the rotors start automatically.
