Norsepower Rotor Sail's Fuel Efficiency Verification Spurs €3 million Investment, Commercial Order

Norsepower says a verification of fuel-saving capabilities has led to €3 million investment 
and first commercial order for a Flettner rotor.

Finnish marine engineering company Norsepower Oy Ltd. (Norsepower) Friday announced that its Rotor Sail Solution, following a fuel efficiency verification by NAPA, has received a €3million ($3.25 million) investment and it has installed a second rotor sail on Bore Ltd's (Bore's) Ro-Ro vessel MS Estraden.

Norspower says it received the €3 million as support for its growth and market expansion from a syndicate led by Power Fund III, which is a clean tech venture fund managed by VNT Management Oy.

"Objective data and impartial verification of the fuel savings delivered by the technology has been absolutely critical to this evolution and will remain central to the way in which we work with shipowners and operators," Tuomas Riski, CEO of Norsepower.

As Ship & Bunker previously reported, a Norsepower Rotor Sail, which is designed to enable vessels to throttle back their main engines when wind conditions are good in order to reduce fuel use and emissions, was installed on the 9,700 DWT Ro-Ro carrier MS Estraden in early 2015 as part of a sea trial process.

The results of the sea trials showed a fuel savings of 2.6 percent, which is said to have prompted Bore to order a second installation, shipping's first such commercial order for a Flettner rotor.

Norspower says that doubling the rotor sails has likewise demonstrated double the fuel savings, with NAPA recording a 6.1 percent reduction in fuel consumption, translating to the reduction of 1,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

"The two-sail installation is delivering the largest fuel saving of any efficiency technology NAPA has measured," said Jouni Salo, Product Manager in Shipping Solutions at NAPA.

"We talk figures of Rotor Sails being effective 80 percent of sailing time, 460kW average propulsion boost and 1.5MW peaking for 10 percent of time.

"The fact that NAPA has not only proven this eco-efficiency technology, but also boosted Norsepower's enterprise value through orders and investment really shows the power of big data when applied correctly."

In September, it was reported that Riski was set to report on the Rotor Sail sea trials at October's 40th annual Interferry Conference in Copenhagen.