Two UK shipowners and two wind assist technology firms have secured cash after a new funding round from the country’s government.
GT Wings and BAR Technologies are among the Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund winners.
GT Wings and Isle of Wight-based shipowner and shareholder Carisbrooke Shipping secured a total of £187,000 ($243,000) for the development of self-learning trim optimisation for its wing propulsion system, called AirWing.
The University of Bath is a partner in the project.
GT Wings has already won more than £4m from earlier government funding rounds to support the development, construction, testing and installation of a prototype sail on a Carisbrooke vessel.
This new funding supports a five-month project to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of integrating self-learning control and artificial intelligence to precisely optimise wing trim for GT’s wind propulsion technology, AirWing.
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GT Wings chief executive George Thompson said: “By integrating artificial intelligence and self-learning capabilities into our AirWing technology, we can deliver even greater environmental and economic benefits to shipowners and operators worldwide.”
BAR Technologies, along with shareholder and backer Union Maritime secured more than £466,000 for the development of its optimisation system to provide real-time analytics on fuel consumption, engine performance and route efficiency of vessels equipped with its wing system, WindWing.
A third UK wind tech developer, Smart Green Shipping, has announced a £1m investment from UK-based energy company Drax for the installation of a wind system on a bulk carrier and the development of its own routing and performance software, SmartRoute.
It describes SmartRoute as an industry-first digital system co-created with the University of Southampton, that “combines AI with high-performance computing to analyse weather data and optimise routes for ships equipped to harness wind power”.
The UK Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund has awarded a total of £7.7m across 30 consortia projects focused on digital and decarbonisation schemes.