Lloyd’s Register’s Strategic Research Group has joined forces with Totempower Energy Systems and Zodiac Maritime Agencies to assess the potential of wind-generation devices on board commercial ships.
For this purpose, an autonomous wind-monitoring system has been installed on the Zodiac-managed bulk carrier “Cape Flamingo”. Sensors have been positioned in locations where the best wind conditions and the most relevant environmental data (wind speed, direction and turbulence) could be expected, with consideration given to the most effective locations for onboard wind generation.
The project is expected to identify and measure the potential generating capacity of wind power for the ship’s trading patterns. The data will be used to support the development of computational fluid dynamics-based simulation models that could be suitable for predicting the energy yields on other Zodiac ships. The data-collection phase is expected to last four to six months.