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Couldn't cargo ships use wind? A wind turbine on the ship? A kind of modern re-imaging of how sailing ships of old were powered. Is the problem that wind isn
by martincmartin 3y ago
Couldn't cargo ships use wind? A wind turbine on the ship? A kind of modern re-imaging of how sailing ships of old were powered.
Is the problem that wind isn't reliable and you might go days without it? Or you wouldn't fit in ports or other areas with a big turbine sticking out? Or is there some other practical problem.
- jackmott42 3y agoCargo ships could use wind sure, it would just be much slower and each boat would have to carry far less stuff. Might solve problems for countries that have lost their own manufacturing capacity because shipping products gets way less appealing.
- Manuel_D 3y agoIt's not just that wind is unreliable, it's also very low energy density. You'd need a lot of sails to haul a small amount of cargo. There are applications using kite sails to supplement combustion engines, but that's just an opportunistic mitigation.
- _aavaa_ 3y agoSeveral designs have been proposed for adding sails, of one shape or another, to ships in addition to an active mode of propulsion in order to reduce fuel consumption. Further, the ships take a significant amount of energy to get going, so much of that initial acceleration could be handled by strong tug boats which would then be immediately recharged.