Lloyd’s Register Strategic Research in association with Totempower Energy Systems and Zodiac[ds_preview] Maritime Agencies embarked on a joint strategic research initiative with the aim to assess the potential use of wind generation devices onboard commercial vessels. For this purpose Totempower has designed and assembled a fully autonomous wind monitoring system able to record wind speeds, direction, turbulences, position (via GPS) and local accelerations. Field trials aim to collect real time wind data, enabling an assessment of the feasibility of wind power systems to be deployed onboard commercial ships. The wind monitoring system has been installed on Zodiac’s Bulk Carrier »Cape Flamingo«. Sensors were mounted in locations where the best wind conditions and the most relevant environmental data are to be expected. So the potential for real turbines can be measured.
The collected data will be used to facilitate the development of CFD-based simulation models suitable to predict potential energy yields for other Zodiac ships. Wolf Dietrich of Totempower Energy Systems said: »Wind assisted power generation onboard commercial vessels seems a feasible option, although the benefits and design requirements need to be well identified and understood.«
