More Wind Energy Heading To The US, One Way Or Another

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Last Updated on: 2nd February 2025, 11:24 am

The US offshore wind industry is facing some serious blowback from the White House, but President Trump is powerless to stop another form of wind energy from arriving on American shores. The cargo shipping industry is beginning to rediscover wind-assisted propulsion, and the world’s largest cargo sailing ship is heading for the US this summer.

Wind Energy Comes Sailing Into New York Harbor

The amount of wind energy adopted by the shipping industry so far is minuscule. However, the trend is growing legs, and it has the potential to make a significant impact on fuel consumption alongside alternative fuels and other new tools in the energy efficiency toolkit.

Wind-assisted cargo ships are already beginning to appear in the waters of the US. The French firm Grain de Sail has established a regular route for its sailing ships with New York City as a port of call. Another French firm, VELA, plans to launch a sail-powered trimaran in 2026, ferrying goods between France and the East Coast.

Although both firms are deploying vessels much smaller than the monster-sized cargo ships that ply the oceans of today, both are banking on the low cost of wind energy and a more nimble profile to reduce expenses. VELA, for example, is planning to deploy pallets instead of shipping containers, with a competitive warehouse-to-warehouse timetable for the Atlantic crossing compared to conventional cargo ships.

Full-Scale Wind Energy At Sea

The wind energy trend is also beginning to expand into the space of full-sized cargo ships, one example being the Neoliner Origin under construction at the RMK Marine shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey with the European startup NEOLINE Développement at the helm.

Neoline launched in 2015 following a four-year pre-development period.

“Whereas most of the wind-powered cargo ships built to date are niche projects, the Neoliner is a large vessel that seeks to become a demonstration of the future potential of environmentally responsible shipping,” Marine Executive observed last year.

Neoline announced the start of construction in 2023, noting that backers include CMA CGM, ADEME Investissement, NEOLINE Développement, Corsica Ferries, Louis Hardy S.A.S, the Banque des Territoires and the Pays de la Loire Region. “The share of bank financing is provided by the Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) and guaranteed by the Public Bank of Investment (BPI),” added Neoline.

Billed as the “world’s largest cargo ship to be powered primarily by sails,” the Neoliner passed another milestone last week, when slipway work was completed. The ship will receive its masts and other fittings while afloat, towards a completion target in June of this year.

“With two 90m (295ft) masts and 3000 square meters (32,300 sqft) of sails, this vessel is preparing for its first transatlantic voyage in summer 2025 from St. Nazaire, calling at St Pierre & Miquelon, a French overseas territory, and finally Baltimore in the USA,” Neoline notes.

The ship is designed as a Ro-Ro (roll on, roll off) vessel for wheeled cargo. Keep an eye out for vehicles from Renault to roll off the ship in Baltimore along with lifting equipment from the firm Manitou and sailing yachts from Beneteau.

The Neoliner also has capacity for 265 shipping containers. As described in an email to CleanTechnica, the leading French brands Longchamp, Hennessy, Clarins, and Le Fournée Dorée will be among those represented in the container space.

More Wind Energy Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

Neoline anticipates that wind energy will provide an impressive 60-70% of Neoliner’s propulsion power. With other energy efficiency tweaks, the company expects an 80% cut in carbon emissions overall compared to similar vessels.

Some clients are already expecting more. Manitou Group, for example, anticipates a 90% cut for every Atlantic crossing.

One ship is a drop in the bucket of today’s shipping industry, but the President of Neoline Development, Jean Zanuttini, suggests that fossil energy stakeholders fasten their seatbelts.

“As we have built the company and Neoline, we worked closely with cargo owners to identify what they needed, and make sure that we were providing a reliable, convenient service as well as reducing climate emissions,” Zanuttini explained in a press statement last week.

“As manufacturers are looking for new ways to to take action on their greenhouse emissions, we’re proud that so many iconic companies have chosen to work with us as part of their global decarbonization strategies,” he added.

Rediscovering Wind For Sustainable Shipping

The Neoliner also represents a step-up in seagoing wind energy harvesting technology. In contrast to the flapping sails of bygone days, the ship will sport fully automated, remote-controlled tilt-able hard sails developed by the firm Chantiers de l’Atlantique. under the name SolidSail.

Like Neoline, Chantiers de l’Antique also sends a warning shot across the bows of fossil energy stakeholders, taking note of the size of the Neoliner project compared to its existing clients.

“This is the first major milestone in the evolution of this activity, and may well herald a wider use of our SolidSail rigs beyond the cruise sector,” the company explains.

Chantiers de l’Antique is far from alone in the hard sail field. Rigid wind energy harvesters can take many forms. One firm with a particularly interesting approach is the Finnish startup Norsepower, which has developed a tilt-able device that resembles a tall smokestack. Norsepower claims that its Rotor Sail can achieve significant fuel savings when combined with new route optimization technology.

Rotor Sails can be installed as retrofits or as equipment on new-built ships for maximum efficiency, and the idea is catching on fast. Last year Norsepower and the shipowner Louis Dreyfus Armateurs announced that Rotor Sails will be installed on a new Ro-Ro fleet to be chartered by Airbus. Norsepower expects that the new fleet will cut CO2 emissions by 50% for the Transatlantic route, compared to 2023 emissions.

That’s just for starters. Norsepower has other projects in the works, and in November the company announced a major step in its manufacturing plans.

Another entry in column-style rigid sail field is the AirWing, under development by the UK startup GT Wings (formerly GT Green Technologies). GT Wings founder and CEO George Thompson anticipates that thousands of existing cargo ships — about 40,000 according to his estimate — could be retrofitted with AirWings.

“Depending on the shipping route and other variables, GT Wings expects a fuel savings of up to 30% for cargo ships outfitted with AirWings,” CleanTechnica noted last month.

Keep an eye on GT Wings. If all goes according to plan, AirWings will get an at-sea trial in March.

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Image (cropped): Wind energy harvesting at sea is ready for scale-up, as illustrated by the forthcoming Neoliner Ro-Ro equipped with rigid sails (via email to CleanTechnica, courtesy of Neoline).