Smart Green Shipping (SGS) has launched a £5m research and development project for its fully automated FastRigs wing sail technology and digital routing software that will harness the power of wind to deliver major fuel and emissions savings for the shipping industry.

The collaborative three-year programme has been made possible by a £3.2m investment from the private sector, which unlocked a further £1.8m grant from Scottish Enterprise.

SGS Founder Diane Gilpin said: “Scotland’s decision to support this project shows that wind technology has the might of a maritime nation behind it. Shipping has a long history of harnessing the power of wind, but digital technologies are allowing us to work towards making zero emission vessels a reality.

“Smart Green Shipping’s FastRig wing sail technology offers a financially and technically robust solution to help support shipping’s green transition.”

Over the course of the project, SGS will initially test its FastRig wing sails at a land-based site at Peel Ports Hunterston Port and Resource Centre in collaboration with Clyde-based specialist engineering partner Malin.

It will further develop its weather routing TradeWind software that creates route plans for wind optimisation. Following successful land-based tests, a demonstrator on board a vessel is expected to be tested by 2023.

Major industry partners include Drax, Malin, Peel Ports and LR, who, alongside SGS’s naval architects, consulted with crews and marine engineers, and have already optimised the technology and design to ensure easy retrofitting and cargo access during port operations.

Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax Group, said: “Reducing emissions from global shipping will be one of the key challenges of the energy transition. Drax has been a long term partner of Smart Green Shipping because we’re excited by their wind assisted sail technologies and the impact these technologies could have on our supply chain.”

Lloyd’s Register has granted 1st stage Approval in Principle for the FastRig technology, which augments a ship’s powertrain.

The FastRig technology is expected to benefit up to 40,000 vessels in the global merchant fleet – primarily bulker and tanker ships.

Modelling tests, undertaken by SGS in conjunction with the University of Southampton’s Wolfson Unit, show that the technology could create at least at least 20% fuel savings and GHG reductions for retrofits, with as much as 50% fuel savings possible for small- and medium-sized new build ships.

The three-year project will address barriers to wider industry uptake to the technology, with a host of technical, digital and financing solutions. In addition to creating agreements with renewables finance providers to fund installations of the technology onboard ships, the SGS team is developing insurance products that will give confidence of predictable financial returns to commercial operators.

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The TradeWind tool has been optimised to gather data that will allow vessels to maximise the use of wind for a journey and optimise a vessel’s routing to minimise fuel consumption and arrive at a port at a designated time – ensuring compatibility with Just In Time arrival operations. Data from Tradewind can be used to underpin charter agreements as well as secure private funding to lease the technology.

Scottish Business Minister Ivan McKee said: “The FastRig project is an excellent example of how innovation can help us progress in low carbon technologies and ensure Scotland is playing its part in these developments, creating more green jobs and business opportunities to take us on a Mission Zero for transport.”

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