Blowhards
- Posted by: Patrick James
- on October 29, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Benjamin Franklin used a kite to prove that lightning is electricity; The German engineer Stephan Wrage is using a kite to move really big ships. Inspired by two of his hobbies—kite-flying and sailing—Wrage realized that large kites could be used to pull freighters, thereby dramatically reducing fuel costs and producing fewer emissions. His SkySails kits reach more than 3,000 square feet and cost between $600,000 and $4 million, but can quickly pay for themselves—the largest can trim fuel costs by an average of 35 percent. One freighter, the MS Beluga SkySails, recently completed a 14,000-mile transatlantic voyage with a prototype computer-controlled kite, demonstrating potential savings of $2,000 a day in reduced fuel costs. The company looks to equip 35 more ships with kites in the coming year.
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PHOTO SkySails GmbH & Co. KG
DISCUSSION: 5 Comments
Genius.
Computer-controlled kite?!?!?! OK, now I’m scared…
It always amazes me how people find that old fashioned things can be enhanced by modern technology and made more efficient and cleaner than fossil fuels. The only way we will ever reach our full potential as a race of beings is if we stop waiting until a crisis comes along to make progress in clean energy. We have the ability to do magnificent things, yet we spend our time and money doing silly things or fighting wars that go nowhere and accomplish nothing usefull.
It’s a sail… why isn’t this obvious?
This is amazing, and Remy, yeah, it seems so obvious that it would have been done 40 years ago. Interesting that some great ideas are just sitting there waiting to be found.