The installation is a significant milestone for bound4blue, marking its first project featuring suction sails manufactured locally in China, and among the earliest adoptions of advanced wind propulsion technology on a combination carrier.
Optimizing Impact
“This is a landmark project in many respects,” commented José Miguel Bermúdez, CEO and co-founder of bound4blue. “It demonstrates how already efficient vessel designs can be optimized even further with free, accessible, and readily available wind power, delivering environmental, commercial, and regulatory advantages.
“As a company, we are scaling up capabilities, in China and beyond, to help forward-thinking operators like KCC embrace wind simply, efficiently, and with maximum benefits. We’d like to thank both them and New Yangzi Shipbuilding for their strong collaboration in what we see as an exciting development for the combination carrier segment.”
Expanding Footprint
The KCC project follows a series of high-profile eSAIL contracts and installations with shipowners such as Louis Dreyfus Company, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Odfjell, Maersk Tankers, Marflet Marine, and BW Epic Kosan. It demonstrates bound4blue’s increasing global footprint, particularly in China, where the business recently entered a number of strategic partnerships to build up production, logistics, and service capacity.
The autonomous units work by using an internal fan system to accelerate airflow over an aerodynamically designed surface, generating forward thrust up to seven times greater than conventional rigid sails of the same size. That clean power eases engine loads, cuts fuel consumption, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while delivering ongoing benefits for compliance with regulatory frameworks such as FuelEU Maritime, via the Wind Reward Factor, EEDI/EEXI, CII, and EU ETS.
“We believe projects of this nature, with customers of the standing of KCC, clearly illustrate our ability to deliver reliable, market-proven wind power technology at scale,” Bermúdez added. “Adoption and acceptance of wind as a viable, commercial, and regulatory beneficial power source is accelerating, and we’re committed to helping the industry take full advantage, as simply and cost-effectively as possible.”
For more information, visit: www.bound4blue.com
