Two 35m tall and 5m wide rotor sails are to be installed by Norsepower on the SC Connector, a 12,251 gross tonne Roll-on/Roll-off cargo vessel operating in the North Sea. The routes involve navigating under bridges and other obstructions which require the Rotor Sails to have a tilting function, bringing down their total height from 35m as needed.
The rotor sails can be installed on new vessels or retrofitted on existing ships, and represent a modern iteration of the Flettner rotor, a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power to thrust a ship. Installation of the new design is scheduled for Q4 2020.
The Norsepower Rotor Sail is the first third-party verified and commercially operational auxiliary wind propulsion technology for the global maritime industry. The solution is fully automated and detects whenever the wind is strong enough to deliver fuel and emission savings, at which point the Rotor Sails start automatically.