New funding bolsters confidence in FastRig development

Smar t Green Shipping’s Fas tRigs is one of 19 projects select ed t o receive funding from the UK Government ’ s £60 million initiative t o superc harge the development of clean maritime solutions.

Smar t Green Shipping’s (SGS) ‘Winds of Change’ project to develop its ground-breaking FastRig technology has been selected as one of the recipients of £60 million in funding from the third round of the UK Government’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC3) The funds will be used to develop a new UK-designed-and-built wing sail, a 20 metre high ‘FastRig’ installed on board a vessel, bringing the maritime industr y closer to efficiently harnessing wind power for propulsion

This latest funding displays growing suppor t for the FastRigs technology, which recently secured a £1 35 million investment from MOL Dr ybulk Ltd (MOLDB) and Scottish Enterprise, building on the £1 8million grant from Scottish Enterprise last year with £3 2million match-funded by the private sector “I’m thrilled that the UK is demonstrating ongoing faith in our FastRig technology, which holds the key to rapidly reducing emissions from shipping,” said SGS CEO, Diane Gilpin “Climate science is clear that shipping must rapidly reduce emissions in the shor t term Wind power, harnessed using sophisticated digital software and well-engineered equipment, is at present the fastest way for the sector to reduce fuel consumption and related emissions ”

The CMDC3 was announced in September 2022, funded by the Depar tment for Transpor t and delivered in par tnership with Innovate UK As par t of the CMDC3, the Depar tment allocated £60m to 19 flagship projects suppor ted by 92 UK organisations to deliver real world demonstration R&D projects in clean maritime solutions Projects will take place in multiple locations around the UK from as far nor th as the Shetland Isles and as far south as Cornwall

The CMDC3 is par t of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions’ (UK SHORE) flagship multi-year CMDC programme In March 2022, the Depar tment announced the biggest government investment ever in our UK commercial maritime sector, allocating £206m to UK SHORE, a new division within the Depar tment for Transpor t focused on decarbonising the maritime sector UK SHORE is delivering a suite of inter ventions throughout 2022-2025 aimed at accelerating the design, manufacture and operation of UK-made clean maritime technologies and unlocking an industr y-led transition to Net Zero

FastRig is an innovative retractable, recyclable rigid wing sail designed to be easily retrofitted to existing commercial vessels with available deck space Depar tment for Transpor t analysis calculates that more than 40,000 vesselspar ticularly bulkers and tankers - are currently suitable for installations of wind technologies such as FastRig Fuel and GHG emissions savings verified during an earlier InnovateUK funded feasibility study point to a minimum of 20% reduction per annum in emissions through use of the FastRig technology and TradeWind smar t analysis tool

“Collaboration is essential for new technology to accelerate at the speed we need to address climate change, which is why we are developing FastRig together with a group of industr y exper ts from all areas of the shipping

, commercial and ship operating knowledge to the table ” Gilpin continues, “Our Winds of Change project is being delivered with The University of Southampton, and project par tners include Humphreys Yacht Design, Houlder, Malin Group, Caley Ocean Systems, Argo Engineering, Lloyd’s Register, MOL Dr yBulk (par t of Mitsui O S K Lines) and Drax ”

“We are currently rigorously testing our equipment and software on land, ahead of the ship installation, to give users confidence in the safety, per formance and economics of 21st centur y wind-assist technology,” Gilpin added