Startups Bet on Kitesurf to Beat Shipping Pollution

Inspired by kitesurfing, French companies are looking to deploy the same wind technology to power everything from yachts to cargo ships in a bid to reduce the shipping industry’s huge carbon footprint.

The region is under renewed pressure to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels as the International Maritime Organization ratified an agreement on Friday that boosts its emissions-reduction targets.

In Arcachon Bay, southwest France, startup Beyond the Sea tested a small studio-sized blue inflatable kite to pull a specially designed catamaran across the water.

“Are you ready to squirm?” Yves Parlier, the company’s founder, said he used kitesurfing lingo to speak to this team of engineers piloting the 25-square-metre (270-square-foot) kite.

In kitesurfing, riders use their hands to control the kite.

But on Parlier’s SeaKite catamaran, an automated traction system is used for the kite, with winch and artificial intelligence that adapts the sail position according to wind conditions.

The goal is to design very large kite sails that could one day pull yachts, trawlers and even container ships.

“It is a phenomenal system of traction that allows fuel consumption to be reduced by an average of 20 percent,” said Parlier, a former winner of transatlantic sailing competitions.

The potential is huge given that there are approximately 100,000 merchant ships and 4.6 million fishing trawlers in the oceans around the world.

The Wind Ship Association, which was formed in France in 2019 with the aim of greening the maritime sector, says the market could be worth four billion euros by 2030 with around 1,400 ships equipped with such kites.

Net zero by 2050

In March next year, Beyond the Sea will conduct similar tests in the waters off Norway and Japan and in the Mediterranean Sea using its specially designed kites.

The company’s executive director, Marc Thienpont, said it expects to double the size of its kites per year to 800 square meters in four years.

The shipping industry must find alternatives to fossil fuels, with the IMO setting a net-zero emissions target for “near 2050” on Friday, with a progressive reduction of at least 20 percent by 2020 and at least 70 percent by 2040. The target has been set. 2008 level.

While the previous target was a 50 per cent reduction by the middle of the century, climate campaigners said the decision was not enough to help the fight against global warming.

AirSeas, another French company in which European aviation giant Airbus has an 11 percent stake, is testing a kite spread over 500 square meters – about twice the size of two tennis courts – which is expected to double for larger ships .

The company, based in the western city of Nantes, late last year acquired Japanese firm K.K. A wholesale carrier belonging to the line was its largest customer, placing five confirmed orders for its sewing.

It has also installed a roll-on, roll-off ship transport facility for A320 aircraft between the French port of Saint-Nazaire and the port of Mobile in the southern US state of Alabama, where Airbus has a factory.

alternative solution

Another alternative solution has come to the fore with the French firm Chantiers de l’Atlantique, whose solid sail designed for oceangoing ships is made of panels fitted into a rigid sail that allows ships to pass under bridges. Can be bent for.

There are also semi-rigid sails manufactured by Ayro and used on the 121 m long cargo ship Canopy to transport elements of the Ariane 6 launcher from Europe to French Guiana.

Some new French shipping companies meanwhile are using ships that use only wind power such as Zephyr et Bourrey, Windkoup, Neolin eau Tout.

“In France, there is a level of operational maturity that allows the commercialization of customized kites and sails,” said Wind Ship’s Lise Detrimont.

But if the sector winds up, the price of a barrel of the heavy fuel oil is currently at its lowest, affecting its attractiveness.

“There is no cost to sea transportation as long as environmental regulations are in place,” Detremont explains.

The carbon-free fuel lobby is also a brake, he said, pointing out that it costs “five to seven times” more than conventional fuel oil and advocates its hybrid use alongside yachting.

The sector is in talks with the French government to recognize wind as a fuel. Detrimont said that with this, more than 30,000 jobs would be created in 2030.

© 2023 AFP