Football Field-Sized Kite Powers Latest Freighter

coondoggie writes to tell us that a new freighter set to launch in December will be receiving a hefty dose of power from a kite the size of a football field. The 460-foot ship, owned by the Beluga shipping company, hopes to see as much as a 50% drop in fuel consumption during optimal conditions. "The SkySails system consists of a towing kite with rope, a launch and recovery system and a control system for the whole operation. The control system acts like the autopitot systems on an aircraft, the company says. Autopilot software sends and receives data about the sail etc to make sure the sail is set at its optimal position. The company also says it provides an optional weather routing system so that ships can sail into optimal wind conditions.The kites typically fly at about 1,000 feet above sea level, thereby tapping winds that can be almost 50% stronger than at the surface. "

Yay old tech

[Jackdaw Rookery]

This strikes me as a good example of the reusing old tech.

I think some of the article misses the point:

'What if fuel prices go down?' What if they don't? Prices will not go down in the long term and the companies using these will benefit the most.

'These can't be used in a head wind.' Well no sh*t Sherlock, thanks for that. It's to cut fuel use, not eliminate it. Any cut will be good for the company and the environment.

But it kills birdies....

[TheNarrator]

Certainly some bird is going to get hit by that kite! It will look ugly flying offshore hundreds of miles from where we can see it! The kite is made from polymers derived from fossil fuels! It somehow violates the second law of thermodynamics! It will sap energy from global winds leading to something bad! Won't somebody please think of the children [ of oil company executives]!

Seriously though... I can't think of any alternatives to fossil fuels that haven't run into enormous amount of flack.

I hope they put beacons on the sail and rope

[darkonc]

Otherwise, sooner or later, some unlucky pilot is going to suddenly find his left wing clipped off while flying at 900ft. (possibly damaging the kite control lines, in the process).

Re:Most of the power?

[cadeon]

I hear that back in the day, devices like these created a 100% reduction in fuel use.

From The Investor Ripoff Department

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me a frickin break! This is purely an investor ripoff scheme. Sails? I mean kites? 50% energy savings? Did they fail to mention that the voyage will take 5 times longer to accomplish this savings and that if they throttled the regular engines back from 20+ knots to a point where the trip time was the same, the "savings" would evaporate?

Why do you suppose we shifted from sails to steam and then to internal combustion engines and then back to steam/nuclear in various Navies? It's because they are more efficient, reliable, controllable than wind powered propulsion. That's why even the most technologically advanced sailboats of today [doylesails.com] still have internal combustion engines for those countless times when sail just won't cut it.

All you utopians can flame me all you like. A dose of reality and old fashion time will show you that I am right. This is an investor scam doomed for failure.

Re:Reinventing the wheel, and getting $$$ for it

[Michael Woodhams]

Kite surfers can tack into the wind, can't they? I don't see why this couldn't. The kite is steerable, so it doesn't have to be directly downwind of the ship.

Re:Reinventing the wheel, and getting $$$ for it

[wordsofwisedumb]

Given that kites could be several hundred feet beyond the bounds of the boat this makes passing another ship with the same system a major event. It might even require more coordination than air traffic.

What? You forgot the biggest factor

[tacokill]

Don't forget "number of nautical miles traveled" somewhere in your calcs.

It makes a substantial difference where the inflection point is.

Re:Reinventing the wheel, and getting $$$ for it

[StarfishOne]

It is actually possible for certain kites to make the ship sail against the wind. By using the kite to generate electricity. :D

Ship propulsion by Kites combining energy production by Laddermill principle and direct kite propulsion [tudelft.nl] (PDF!)

Re:Getting $$$ for vaporware

[TheRaven64]

From what I've heard, shipping is a fairly low-margin business which makes large profits due to large volumes. A 25% savings on fuel costs might only be a 5% or even a 2% saving in overall costs, but could double the profits for a trip.