Sweden’s Sci-Fi Looking Eco-minded Shipping Design
The arena of cutting-edge sustainable tech isn’t always futuristic. At least not in terms of inspiration, where one promising avenue is achieving the future through the past. Looking forward is always the goal, but progress can extend its purview of the “yet to be” by drawing ideas from the “has been.”
Here’s a beautiful—both aesthetically and scientifically—example that may be majorly impactful for our cargo-dependent society:
Meet the Oceanbird, Sweden’s revolutionary cargo ship. Especially in an age in which 90% of the world’s trade is sea-borne. The global fleets of merchant ships belch out a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, or “about 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions.”
Even ships implementing cleaner air initiatives are still destructive: pollution isn’t eliminated but dumped into the ocean rather than into the atmosphere. This “wash water” is full of carcinogens, metals, and all sorts of nastiness from fuel oils and other chemicals that affect pH, temperature, turbidity, and destroy the nutrients needed by marine life. And about 80% of this toxic gunk and sludge ends up close to shore, polluting ecologically sensitive areas like the Great Barrier Reef.
The Oceanbird is being developed by sustainable Swedish shipping company Wallenius Marine AB and also-Swedish company Alfa Laval, which supplies physical logistics for heavy industry. When their baby sets sail in 2026, the Oceanbird will become a nearly 660-foot-long throwback to the days of pre-industrial shipping thousands of years ago.
It may be the tallest sailing ship ever constructed. But this non-polluting beast will harness the power of the wind with its sleek, 340-foot-tall sails. They do not resemble the sails of previous ages, but something more advanced as shown in this video. They can be rotated, lowered, or opened to catch the wind, pass under bridges, and improve maneuverability.
Oceanbird’s revolutionized design yields revolutionized efficiency; each wing saves 3,000 barrels of diesel per year, allowing the Oceanbird to transport 7,000 cars while cutting carbon emissions by 90%.
Its build costs somewhat more than a polluting ship, and it might be slightly slower in crossing the Atlantic, taking twelve days instead of eight.
But futuristic-past tech is still in its infancy, and holds potential for improvement with sleeker lines, reconfigured speed and route recommendations, or who can imagine what else. These more efficient designs can also be applied to other ships, not just carriers. And the reduction in sound pollution will be a big boon to whales. Additionally, operational costs will be lower, making up for any extra funds required in its construction.
And overall, isn’t saving the environment worth waiting a few extra days for a Volvo?