Dear All,

Welcome to the first of two IWSA member newsletters for 2024. With so many developments taking place, the size of these newsletters has grown enormously since they began in tandem with interest in our sector snowballing. Although they now come in two larger editions per year, they provide us with a handy stop point to reflect and summarise the great strides we are making towards the use of wind as an energy source by commercial vessels.

At the end of last year and the start of this year, a great deal of the IWSA Secretariat’s time was spent preparing for MEPC81, or more specifically preparing the MEPC81/INF.39 paper which took a lot more resource to develop than initially expected.

This INF. paper was a treasure chest of information for IMO Members States to comprehend and was very well-received during the deliberations at IMO MEPC81. This paper has undoubtedly helped to set a baseline for policy makers when it comes to wind propulsion developments. The next step for this particular INF. paper is for us to produce a slimmed down, more industry facing version within the next few months.

This year so far has been a time of reflection on past accomplishments by all IWSA members and also a time to look to the present and near future developments and how those bode in the lead up to 2030. It has been quite a journey over the last decade and as we approach the 10th anniversary of the founding of IWSA (in November 2014), we are starting to experience a distinct, definable shift in the wind both in the market and in the policy discussions and pathways underway.

Elements of that wind change include:

Market milestones: at the end of March, we had 37 wind propulsion installed vessels along with 11 wind-ready vessels which have a combined total of 2.5 million DWT. These are complemented by 10 small traditionally rigged cruise vessels and dozens of small sail cargo and fisheries vessels. A critical mass of demonstrator ships is forming in the bulker, tanker, RoRo, and general cargo segments with developments in other segments accelerating also.

Costs, prices and preparation: putting current fuel price fluctuations aside, there is a growing upward pressure on fuel costs with carbon pricing entering the market to be followed by the roll out of new more expensive alternative fuels. There is a downward pressure on underlying costs as the learning curve kicks in and economies of scale help to lower these across the board and this is linked to increases in production capacity for those companies with wind propulsion systems already in the marketplace.

Policy makers and perception: there’s a growing acceptance in the IMO, the EU and among national governments that wind is a significant energy option for deployment in the global fleet and will be important in the delivery of the EU Fit for 55 and IMO 2023 GHG strategies, both in the short term GHG targets but also longer term significantly reducing bunker requirements towards 2050.

Growing demand, widening interest and strengthening pipeline: a far more varied collection of market stakeholders are showing interest in wind propulsion technology developments and among shipowners we are starting to see small fleet orders being made, not only single ship deployments. Primary wind ships are starting to enter the fleet and the pipeline of announced wind-assist installations is strengthening just as the time lag between contract signed and installation of retrofits is coming down too. As a point of fact, in the last 12 months to March 2024 there were 22 installations and wind ready vessels delivered compared with 8 in the previous 12 months.

This change in the market and policy environment isn’t yet locked in and more work needs to be done. However, there is growing evidence that we are approaching an inflexion point, likely to align with these policy measures being felt in the industry in 2026/7 which will coincide with significant fleet operations and vessel deliveries of wind propulsion vessels easily topping 100 ships and doubling each year henceforth.

Wind propulsion development is now starting to go with the prevailing winds rather than being buffeted by headwinds. How fast and deep that transition will unfold is the question on everyone’s lips.

Gavin Allwright (IWSA Secretary General)
secretary@wind-ship.org