#NEOLINE reports 70% fuel savings aboard #NeolinerOrigin in 2026, carrying over 12,000 tonnes across the Atlantic. CEO #JeanZanuttini targets 78% reductions as #WindPropulsion technology advances despite technical challenges affecting the vessel's rigging systems.
  • spit_evil_olive_tips ( spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org ) 
    6·
    14 hours ago

    meh…this is just reprinting their press release: https://www.neoline.eu/en/neoliner-origin-70-fuel-savings-and-a-first-year-confirming-the-industrial-potential-of-wind-powered-shipping/

    it sucks, because it’d be great if it was more feasible, but anytime you see news about wind-powered cargo ships a “this is greenwashing” alarm should go off in your head

    that 70% number in the headline sounds really promising, right?

    The 136 metre roll on roll off vessel, which entered service in October 2025, completed nine commercial round trips, sailed more than 62,000 nautical miles and transported 12,063 tonnes of cargo during its first year.

    one ship, 9 trips, 12,000 tons of cargo

    meanwhile, Panamax carries ~50,000 tons, and neo-Panamax carries ~120,000 tons. in one trip.

    so you build 10 of these ships, sail them for a year, and it replaces one trip by one neo-Panamax ship.

    except, it doesn’t even really do that. the press release talks about the ship being “roll-on / roll-off” like it’s a feature. which it can be, for certain niches.

    but modern cargo ships all use big stacks of shipping containers, and handle them at ports using giant overhead cranes. that’s effectively the worldwide standard.

    and ships with huge sailing masts are either impossible or very difficult to make work with those overhead cranes. so this isn’t just a question of building new wind-powered cargo ships, it’s also retrofitting every existing cargo port in the world to handle them.

    is all of that technically possible? sure.

    but we have 12 years to prevent a climate change catastrophe…according to a report published 8 years ago. “check it out guys, we built one sailboat” just ain’t gonna cut it.

    • MostlyBlindGamer ( MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com ) English
      1·
      4 hours ago

      I dunno, I’m often close to a shipping port and see roll-on/roll-off ships all the time. And if I see them, you can bet there’s a lot more there I’m missing. Haha.

      I’m not really a shipping professional or nerd, but are we maybe comparing apples to oranges here? “Look, this orange is incredibly hard, tastes sour and has no pith or juice.” Yeah, it’s a pretty good apple though.

      They may be greenwashing, but we should also be producing and consuming locally a lot more, so a future focused on smaller efficient ships might be a good thing. Or just alternatives for the industries that can use them.

    • supersquirrel ( supersquirrel@lemmy.ca ) OP
      3·
      13 hours ago

      but modern cargo ships all use big stacks of shipping containers, and handle them at ports using giant overhead cranes. that’s effectively the worldwide standard.

      and ships with huge sailing masts are either impossible or very difficult to make work with those overhead cranes.

      The masts fold