Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (‘K’ Line) has acquired the business of Airseas (France), a company specialising in kites for wind propulsion assistance.
‘K’ Line has established a new company, to be known as Oceanicwing, based at Nantes in France. The goal for the new joint-venture company is to strengthen the development and commercialisation of the Seawing automated kite system which uses solely wind power.
Seawing is expected to reduce CO2 emissions from vessels by approximately 20%. When used together with lower-carbon fuels, such as LNG, instead of conventional heavy fuel oil, a greater CO2 reduction can be achieved. Seawing can be installed on any type of vessel, including existing ships, with no separate energy production or supply facility required.
‘K’ Line says that the acquisition strengthens its long-term environmental vision, which has set the aim of, by 2023, improving its CO2 emission efficiency by 50% compared to 2008, and to be zero-carbon by 2050, exceeding the IMO targets. The use of Seawing is expected to contribute to ‘K’ Line’s environmental goal.
Image: Seawing kite system (source: âKâ Line)
