It looks like a renewable energy company has reinvented the wheel. A huge cargo ship will use a large kite to drag itself across the ocean in a test run next month that will explore the possibility of using wind power to reduce the shipping industry's immense carbon footprint.
Airseas, a French renewable energy startup, will use a parafoil kite to conduct its test run early in 2022, according to a report. It will be attached to a ship called the Ville de Bordeaux, which will test out the kite for six months before it returns to its regular route.
The company says on its website that it wants to have eco-friendly systems in 10 percent of the world's cargo fleet by the year 2030. The kite is not attached to the deck of a boat like a sail. Airseas has said that the kite can be retrofitted to fit any kind of ship.
Why knot?
Around 50,000 ships carry 80 percent of the world's goods. Cargo ships use a particularly nasty power source called "bunker fuel," and it's estimated that it emits more than 2 percent of global carbon emissions and between 10 percent to 15 percent of the world's sulfur oxide and nitrous oxide pollution.
Ville de Bordeaux and other ships using the Seawing should be able to increase their fuel economy by using the wind. If the Seawing is a new kind of sail and Airseas is able to get 10 percent of the world's fleet on board quickly, who cares?
If we want to survive, we need all hands on deck.
There are video shows of animals invading a neighborhood.
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