O futuro é agora: Navio movido a energia eólica pode transportar até 7 mil carros

The Future Is Now: Wind-Powered Ship Can Carry Up to 7,000 Cars

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 13/09/2020 at 08:41

Navio movido a energia eólica

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Wind-Powered Ship Uses Wings Instead of Sails, Along with Other Technologies; The Future Has Arrived

A Swedish consortium formed by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the maritime consultancy SSPA, and under the supervision of the ship designers at Wallenius Marine, has developed the Wind Powered Car Carrier (wPCC), a transatlantic cargo ship powered by wind energy.

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While the electric vehicle segment for end users has been experiencing strong growth in recent years, commercially, it has not made significant strides, especially when it comes to maritime transport using wind energy.

Electric ships are not a very close approach to electric cars, as the weight of batteries would have much more relevance at sea than on land. Therefore, instead of using batteries, the wind-powered ship uses “sails” that are driven by the force of the wind, transmitting the thrust to the hull, just like a sailing boat.

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Up to 90% Cleaner Than Common Ships

The wPCC is slightly shorter than a medium-sized container ship, but it is much taller due to the sails. It measures 200 meters in length, 40 meters in width, and 100 meters in height, with 20 meters being the ship itself and an additional 80 meters for the sails.

For safety reasons and to enter and exit the port, the cargo ship will have additional engines, which should be electric, in order to maintain its sustainable aspect. Speaking of sustainability, the wPCC will be able to transport up to 7,000 vehicles, emitting up to 90% less gas than a fossil fuel-powered ship of the same size.

The wPCC is expected to begin operations in 2024, and for now, it only has one disadvantage compared to vessels using non-renewable energy: it will take 12 days to cross the Atlantic, nearly double the time required for a common ship, which crosses the ocean in seven days.

The Future Is Now: Wind-Powered Ship Can Carry Up to 7,000 Cars

Wind-Powered Ship Uses Wings Instead of Sails, Along with Other Technologies; The Future Has Arrived

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Up to 90% Cleaner Than Common Ships

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The Future Is Now: Wind-Powered Ship Can Carry Up to 7,000 Cars

Wind-Powered Ship Uses Wings Instead of Sails, Along with Other Technologies; The Future Has Arrived

Read Also

Up to 90% Cleaner Than Common Ships

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

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