Kite sails could help lower ship emissions and fuel mileage
A while back, I visited San Francisco, and for the first time in my life, I witnessed people using huge kits as sails to lift themselves up out of the water. I was suitably impressed, I must say, and thought that the sport looked like fun. Personal anecdote aside, it seems that these large kite sails may be good for more than human sport. According to this article, a company called Kite For Sale is testing these kite sails to add extra power to boats for use in shipping. The tests have worked well, it seems, as their test-bed is a trimaran which only uses the on-board engine for low speed travel and maneuvering. So, what we have here is a hybrid... a wind/petroleum hybrid boat. Cool, old technology is made new again.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Arnie 9:00PM (7/02/2007)
Interesting even if it's not about cars. This technology probably has a bright future. This company is just about to put sails for cargo vessels on the market:
http://www.skysails.info/index.php?L=1
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Scatter 2:27AM (7/03/2007)
Another interesting article on this here:
http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg18524881.600-the-new-age-of-sail.html
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Manu Sharma 8:58AM (7/03/2007)
Very interesting. These kites would perhaps be more appropriately addressed as parachutes since the sport you mentioned is called Parasailing which probably originated in Paragliding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasailing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragliding
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John Rowell 1:35PM (7/03/2007)
Ocean freight is responsible for a large percentage of the world's diesel pollution and CO2 emissions. I've been anxiously awaiting the first fleet to use kites on their ships. When this becomes mainstream those companies will see much lower fuel costs and the world will enjoy a significant emissions reduction.
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KLEI 11:55PM (7/04/2007)
Manu sharma,
I believe that he is acctually refering to the sport of kiteboarding, judging by the fact that the kite shown above is the inflateable type for use on the water with a board, not a "ram air" like a parafoil. However i may be wrong...
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