Isra-Mart srl:World's largest kite-powered ship makes emission cuts a breeze

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Transportation company Cargill is moving forwards with plans to fit an enormous kite to one of its charter vessels in a trial that it says could reduce the fuel used shipping its goods by up to 35 per cent.

The 320m2 kite developed by Germany company SkySails will be attached to a ship with a capacity of 30,000 deadweight tonnes, making it the largest kite-propelled vessel in the world.

Soaring up to 420m above the deck, the computer-controlled kite tugs the ship along in its path, delivering significant cuts in fuel usage and emissions.

Shipping currently accounts for around four per cent of global emissions, but this is projected to rise exponentially as worldwide trade expands. A global agreement to curb emissions continues to prove elusive, leaving technical innovations to produce greener ships as the best available means of cutting emissions.

A 2009 IMO report said that up to 100m tonnes of carbon dioxide, around a tenth of Germany's entire emissions, could be saved each year by widespread take-up of SkySails' technology across the world's merchant fleet.

Although Cargill does not own any vessels, it ships more than 185m tonnes of commodities each year.

It will begin fitting the kite technology in December and aims to have the trial system fully operational early in 2012.

G.J. van den Akker, head of Cargill's ocean transportation business, said the company viewed installing the kite on one of its chartered ships as the first part of a long-term partnership with SkySails.

"For some time, we have been searching for a project that can help drive environmental best practice within the shipping industry and see this as a meaningful first step," he said. "The shipping industry currently supports 90 per cent of the world's international physical trade. In a world of finite resources, environmental stewardship makes good business sense."