World's first wind-powered RoRo vessel secures EUR 9M in EU funding

The grant of EUR 9m is divided between eleven partners - all bringing something unique to the table. Together, we represent a 360-degree perspective on wind propulsion – including weather routing, vessel design, supply chain orchestration and crew training to test rig installation on an existing vessel. The project’s scope is to make the Orcelle Wind ready for commercial trading.

- We are very excited to participate in the Orcelle concept development. Our Wind Powered Ships team will contribute with numerical simulations, full scale testing, crew training, and logistic investigations, comments Sofia Werner, Lead Researcher Hydrodynamics and Wind Powered Ships at former SSPA, now the maritime department at RISE.

Orcelle Wind is a wind-powered Pure Car Truck Carrier, a type of deepsea Roll On, Roll Off vessel. It will be 220 meters and have a capacity for over 7,000 cars, but it will also be capable of carrying breakbulk and rolling equipment. The ambition is for it to commence sailing in late 2026 or early 2027.

Orcelle Wind is the first vessel from the Oceanbird concept for primarily wind-powered vessels. The concept shows that it is theoretically possible to reduce emissions from vessels by up to 90 percent if all emissions-influencing factors are aligned.