Wind-Assisted Coal Carrier Begins Operations for Tokohu Electric

 

 

 

 

Tohoku 

MOL / Tohoku

PUBLISHED OCT 10, 2022 8:12 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

Japanese shipowner MOL and powerplant operator Tohoku Electric Power have begun commercial operations with a novel reduced-emissions vessel: a coal-carrying bulker with auxiliary wind power. 

The 100,000 dwt Shofu Maru is the world's first vessel equipped with the MOL / Oshima Shipbuilding "Wind Challenger" telescopic wing sail. She will transport coal - primarily from Australia, Indonesia, and North America - on a long-term charter to Tohoku, Japan's fourth-largest power utility. 

The Wind Challenger wing sail is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vessel operations by about five percent on a Japan-Australia voyage and about eight percent on a Japan-U.S. West Coast voyage when compared to a conventional vessel of the same type, according to MOL.