NASA women save stars. 🫶🏻💫

The UK does this to a certain extent with our wind balanced against Norway’s hydro capacity, enabled by our inter-connectors.

From what I understand, NZ hydro’s role in the grid is too big to just sit idle as ‘backup’.
But it can be a very flexible source, well suited to pairing with wind and solar. Ramp down hydro on windy/sunny days so holding some of that water back, then ramping up as conditions change.

That vessel has averaged over 14% on her last two voyages 🤓

Yea you’re right!
We have Rotor Sails from Norsepower on 5 of these smaller chemical tankers so far.

Much larger Wind Wings on three of our much larger ships too!

Aerial photograph of a ship alongside a terminal in port. Two white cylinders (rotor sails) stand tall above the ship’s deck.

The last month has seen fuel prices for our ships double… and at the same time one of our sail-equipped ships has had incredible performance on North Atlantic crossings.

Nothing like a(nother) fossil fuel crisis to make the case for renewable energy even clearer - whether on land or at sea!

Good they highlight the electricity cost in the UK being a barrier to battery ferries though - yet another reason to address our market issues.

Will need to look at the methodology here when time allows…
Having SOx the headline figure makes for a horrifying comparison with cars, as road fuels have had far stricter sulphur content rules for a while now.

Also feel AIS-based rather than actual vessel consumption leaves lots to be desired.

Four of our six ships with sails are chemical tankers, so everything from methanol to vege oils, not just moving fossil fuels around.

All these projects give us a good business case, factoring in the stricter regulations and penalties we’re subject to.

We do optimise routes for our sails too 🤓

A tall, rectangular wind propulsion sail rising prominently from the deck of a tanker at sea. The sail dominates the frame against a pale blue, lightly clouded sky, with the black hull, red deck piping, and white spherical LNG tanks visible.

And of course she has sails -
Two 20m by 37.5m sails from BAR Technologies, able to fold flat along the deck or be raised to harness renewable energy from the wind.

Because free, zero-emission energy is still good to have 😎

We have addressed this by selecting an engine with very low methane slip - just 0.2%, where other engine types may see 2-3%.

With maritime regulations accounting for more than just CO2, this is an important factor in the long-term compliance for these ships.

A close-up, elevated view of the tanker at sea showing two large cylindrical LNG storage tanks mounted on deck, secured within white support cradles. Red piping, valves, and cargo handling equipment surround the tanks. The white tanks have discoloured from shipyard activity.

Forgive the shipyard dirt… her LNG tanks on deck are heavily insulated, keeping the fuel at -130 degrees C.

LNG can deliver the same energy with less CO2, but ‘methane slip’ is important to address. This is where unburned methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) reaches the exhaust.

A large black tanker branded with “AeroLNG” sailing at sea under a bright, partly cloudy sky. Two tall, rectangular wind propulsion sails rise vertically from the deck near midship. Spherical LNG storage tanks are visible on deck toward the stern alongside red deck piping and equipment.

Our latest newbuild delivery has arrived, combining LNG dual-fuel capability and wind propulsion for the first time ever on an LR2!

Now our sixth ship with sails, Spa builds on our experience with wind propulsion and introduces a new fuel option to our fleet to help reduce emissions further.

That’s the one!

It’s not all been smooth sailing (lol) but every tonne of fuel replaced is a very good thing!

Two bar charts, one for the vessel ‘Brands Hatch’ with 57.3% of propulsion from wind, and the other for ‘Ostro’ with 54.3% of propulsion from wind.

Today we had two of our sail-equipped ships at sea… and both had over half their propulsion being provided by their sails!

These figures aren’t too common as we aim for 10-15% average across a year, but it demonstrates the potential when the conditions are right!

Hello @octopus.energy I’m curious -
Greener Nights are awesome, but a bit of a faff to look up… they’re not in the app yet right?

Would a ‘Use Greener Nights’ option within the smart charging setup be workable?

Let me plug in every night, let you schedule my charging when it’s Greener 🐙⚡️

Exactly where my mind went too -
Will be curious to see the implementation!

Spotted this coming in iOS26:

Adaptive Temperature automatically adjusts your thermostat to your preferred temperature when you’re on your way home, and adjusts to save energy when you leave for the day or go on vacation.

I’m flattered, but really I just dabble in a bit of everything that catches my interest 🤓

I wouldn’t have guessed back in high school that my chemistry lessons would be making a comeback 20+ years later to try and work out carbon capture systems!

This means for one of our small ships with ~35 tonnes of CO2 emissions per day, for each day’s sailing we consume 10 tonnes of fuel and 100 tonnes of Ca(OH)2…

And are left with 135 tonnes of CaCO3.

They also said “Carbon capture is really the only thing that we can do.” so I suspect there’s some level of creative phrasing in there 🙃

Unless mistaken, going from Ca(OH)2 at 74.0927 g/mol to CaCO3 at 100.0869 g/mol is a 35% increase in mass - assuming you do actually get it perfectly dry.

Which part? The energy intensity, or the weight?

I’ll see if I can dig out my notes from when we spoke with them a while ago, I had put some numbers to the weight gain. Your article states ‘no major net gain’ which is a bit vague haha

This option has fairly low energy intensity onboard (compared with liquifying pure CO2 for example) but it does mean loading tonnes of what is essentially rock… which will get even heavier as it becomes saturated.

It’s an interesting concept.
As with many carbon capture options, it will depend on having global infrastructure to both support the shore/vessel transfer, and the local processing.

I do like this!
Miss standing on the bow with just the sea and stars, and the rush of the wind.

Especially today when our weather optimisation had predicted winds to become more favourable.

Seeing the Main Engine kW drop slightly as our WindWing kW picks up, and the ship’s speed increase, is very satisfying 🤓

Time series chart showing main engine power, sail or ‘WW’ power and the ship’s speed. On 20 July the sail power increases dramatically, along with the ship’s speed, demonstrating the impact the sails are having.

When I first put solar panels on my house, I was opening the app all the time to see what was going on with them. Were they generating? How much? How much power was I using?

While that obsession has calmed down, now I find myself doing the same with our ships using sails…

a woman is sitting on a couch and says i was the bad influence Alt: GIF of a woman sitting on a couch and excitedly saying ‘i was the bad influence?’

😇

Tanker sailing across the sea, with the name ‘Brands Hatch’ on the front and ‘AeroPower’ branding on the side. Standing tall above the ship’s deck are three large sails almost like aeroplane wings.

We’re just days away from taking delivery of our fourth wind-equipped ‘AeroPower’ vessel.
The first ever newbuild, and the first tanker, to have BAR Technologies WindWings fitted!

With 2.5x the wing area of an A380, we expect to save over 1,200 tonnes of fuel and 3,800 tonnes of CO2 each year.

Screenshot from 08:30 in London, but showing auto time zone as Jerusalem.

Screenshot now from 18:30 in London, but also showing auto time zone as Jerusalem.

Something weird with the location data on Thameslink today, around St Pancras/Farringdon area -

Both this morning and now on my way home, my phone ‘Automatic’ time zone has decided I’m in Jerusalem.

A bit of a surprise to look at my watch and see I’ve lost two hours 😳😅