Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

Re:Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of i... by sandworm101 on Friday August 31, 2018 @11:40PM (#17890061)

Wind is also extreemly limited. As a ship scales up there is proportionaly much less wind energy to work with. Cargo ships move as fast as windsurfers (25+mph). Think of a windsurfer's sail to hull ratio. And the ship isnt on a plane, but pushes through the water. I see 1000' tall mast(s), with sails the size of small towns.

A big cargo ship's engine can be 25000kw. The biggest wind turbines (750') generate about 8000kw. So.. three of them? The ship would need to be 1500 feet long just to make room. But the wind isnt constant. Five turbines? Bridges might be an issue.

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Re:Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of i... by woodandsteel on Saturday September 01, 2018 @04:43PM (#17893798)

>As a ship scales up there is proportionaly much less wind energy to work with.

It's the square-cube law in operation. It also applies to solar. The only application of solar mounted on a transportation vehicle that makes any sense is those ultra-light unmanned planes that cruise above 60,000 feet.

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Re:Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of i... by sandworm101 on Saturday September 01, 2018 @05:14PM (#17893908)

Solar panels on cars make sense. They may not provide much actual charging, but they can prevent discharge over time.

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Re:Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of i... by woodandsteel on Saturday September 01, 2018 @08:27PM (#17894668)

I meant in the sense of providing the power for the motor.

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